Think your marketing nightmares leave a bad taste? Imagine one like this: It's your first time cooking a gourmet meal, and the audience is Wolfgang Puck, Jamie Oliver, and Gordon Ramsay, the latter of whom would probably F-bomb your every culinary effort, from the amuse-bouche to the zeppole. That's the scenario Tattooed Chef Inc. confronted when it chose to leap from the sauté pan of marketing into the fire by exhibiting at its first-ever trade show in 2022. And this wasn't some undercooked expo with no real competition, but the equivalent of opening a sparkling wine shop in the Champagne region of France: Natural Products Expo West (NPE), a leading trade show for businesses with organic, natural, and healthy offerings. Why jump into the exhibiting arena now? Tattooed Chef marketers wanted to raise awareness of the brand through the media, showcase the breadth of their product line, and elevate the company's cachet, all to engage and win leads from both big-box and small, independent retailers, distributors, foodservice providers, and health practitioners. And where better to do this than an expo that regularly draws nearly 60,000 attendees?

Tattooed Chef's line of plant-based meals and snacks debuted in 2017. (The eccentric appellation came not through the usual market research but via a dream its founder, Sarah Galletti, a body-ink aficionado, had one night.) Before long, its fortunes were rising with the speed of a soufflé. In selling its cauliflower pizza crusts, smoothie bowls, egg rolls, burritos, burgers, and more, all made with plant-derived ingredients, Tattooed Chef cultivated an impressive roster of customers, including Whole Foods Market IP Inc., Costco Wholesale Corp., and Target Corp. According to IRI/SPINS, which monitors the natural/organic food industry, Tattooed Chef had become the fastest-growing frozen health and wellness brand and the leading health and wellness brand in frozen breakfast products.

From Soup to Nuts
In light of Tattooed Chef's commercial achievements, succeeding at the 2022 NPE in Anaheim, CA, should have been a piece of (gluten- and sugar-free) cake, right? Not necessarily, because the level of competition there comprises a Cheesecake Factory-size menu of 2,700 exhibitors – including 625 brands that, like Tattooed Chef, were making their show-floor debuts. "Tattooed Chef is a young brand gaining fast national distribution in the last two years," says Brooke Golden, Tattooed Chef's head of strategic marketing. "Expo West was the first real opportunity – especially with the pandemic – to introduce the trade to the brand."

In fact, plant-based foods generate more heated opinion than whether pineapple belongs on pizza. (Spoiler alert: It does.) Marketing them can be a tricky proposition that requires a cohesive and layered messaging strategy. According to the results compiled from the World Resource Institute's two-year Better Buying Lab study, using terms for these foods such as "meat-free" and "vegan" is risky because the former emphasizes what's missing, and the latter implies they're "expensive," "boring," and even "gross." The outcome of another study in 2018, carried out by Stanford University, jibed with Better Buying Lab's findings, concluding that to sell plant-heavy foods, the companies marketing them need to pour on a sauce of flavorful adjectives such as "rich," "zesty," and "indulgent."

Clearly, then, marketing its good-for-you goods, even at a seemingly receptive venue such as NPE, wasn't going to be as easy as boiling water. To meet that challenge head on and stir the pot at what would be its premiere show, Tattooed Chef marketers whipped up a strategy as stacked as a triple decker sandwich. In the broadest sense, "The plan was to deliver an integrated experience and build a variety of touchpoints to do so," Golden says.

LOFTY IDEA
Tattooed Chef's debut exhibit at Natural Products Expo West boasted a LA-inspired loft vibe and a buffet of marketing and messaging touchpoints. Now all the company had to do was create that "integrated experience" and "variety of touchpoints" from scratch. Like a baker laying out their utensils and ingredients before even turning on an oven, the company set down the basic tactics that it hoped would fulfill its general goals. First, there would be a pre-show outreach to select media outlets and nutritionists to generate awareness and coverage.

Invitations would be emailed to registered attendees in the hopes of driving them to the booth for a party. Further, its social-media efforts would embrace Instagram, TikTok, and LinkedIn before and during the show to promote its appearance and the newest products. A revamping of its website would take place right before the expo opened, offering another opportunity to promote its upcoming appearance there and again showcase its latest offerings. At the show itself, Tattooed Chef planned to extend its presence beyond the booth by promoting its fare off the show floor in areas supplied by expo management, while the stand would be designed with a trendy appearance to help meet the goal of lifting the brand's prestige. Staffers would welcome people into the booth with food and activities that would also be promoted by the aforementioned emails and social-media efforts.

Those were the ingredients of its wide-ranging marketing plan. If this were an actual meal, the results might later be judged by diners' gushing Yelp reviews. In this instance, however, because it was the company's first-ever trade show, marketers decided to take a conservative approach. Instead they would only compile metrics such as media outlets engaged, online impressions obtained, and, perhaps most importantly, leads acquired. These figures, whatever they would turn out to be, would set a baseline for future events.

Marketing Mise en Place
About two months before NPE opened its doors in late March, Tattooed Chef got to work with its smorgasbord of marketing efforts. Starting in mid-January, it ran display advertisements on the show website promoting new products such as the organic acai bowl and referencing a cheeky tagline, "Serving Plant-Rich Foods to People Who Give a Crop." Next, it contacted national lifestyle and food-and-beverage-related media outlets, a list that included the "Today" show, Food Network, Hypebeast, Us Weekly, Taste of Home, and a slew of registered dieticians and nutritionists, with a press release about the upcoming expo and the nearly 40 new products the company would be showcasing there. Following that, another flurry of emails went out to registered attendees inviting them to come for a happy hour on the last day of NPE. The in-booth party would be a prime opportunity to see new products, meet founder Sarah Galletti (whom marketers were keen on positioning as the face of the company), and not incidentally devour a playlist of songs that the company cleverly dubbed "Taste the Jams."

In the days leading up to the show, Tattooed Chef's social-media efforts first embraced LinkedIn, where it posted about the company's new products and "Give a Crop" messaging. While it no doubt intrigued readers, the punning phase would later come to full life via an in-booth activity with a similar name. Meanwhile, fulfilling another part of its marketing plan, the company revamped its website with new-product info and a call to action to RSVP for an in-booth meeting at NPE.

Would all these marketing hors d'oeuvres be enough to help Tattooed Chef claim a space in the culinary pantheon? Like any chef before opening night, marketers nervously awaited to see if their efforts would please attendees' discerning palates.

Food Court
Anyone who has ever walked by a bakery knows how the smell of freshly baked bread can exert an irresistible pull. On the opening day of NPE, Tattooed Chef caught the attention, if not the noses, of arriving attendees by purchasing time on a video wall outside the exhibit hall, entering the New Product Line Showcase in the venue's lobby, and securing a lightbox poster at the entrance to the show floor. By the time they made their way to the booth, many attendees were primed – and perhaps even salivating – to see what Tattooed Chef was serving up in its exhibit.

If, even after all the pre-show marketing, guests expected the Tattooed Chef booth to resemble the stocked shelves at, say, a Trader Joe's, they were in for a pleasant surprise. What they encountered upon approaching the open 30-by-40-foot, two-story exhibit suggested a chic Los Angeles loft whose downtown-cool style hinted that, like the culinary scene in the City of Angels itself, Tattooed Chef is blazing the food-trend trail. Staffers in highly noticeable tomato-red sneakers greeted guests with offers of protein bars and temporary tattoos before inviting them to wander through a setting that comprised a kitchen island, living room, and an intriguing back-wall display. It was the embodiment of the idea that presentation is always a crucial part of any meal. "The LA loft inspiration came directly from the culture of the target market," says Jon Horn, senior designer at 3D Exhibits, a Sparks Marketing Corp company, which designed the exhibit. "This is evidenced by what you see in a vast amount of Tattooed Chef's Instagram posts."

For example, many dining tables have an all-eyes-go-to-it centerpiece that establishes the theme of the meal. Tweaking that idea cleverly, Tattooed Chef employed a table/conversation starter in the booth that was itself a centerpiece attendees couldn't help but notice and gravitate toward. Spanning 12-by-3.5 feet and bragging an elegant marble-topped surface the shade of meringue, the table hosted countless family-style chats between staffers and attendees. Those conversations were made easier by a trio of nearby shelves laden with display boxes of the company's plant-based offerings.

Early Bird Specials
Hoping to boost brand awareness and media attention, Tattooed Chef prepared a tasting menu of pre-show enticements. Once they'd talked shop, guests could stroll by the back wall on which skateboards, succulents, and vinyl albums – including records by The Smiths and Fleetwood Mac – had been placed alongside photos of Galletti to foster a cozy, chill vibe. "The photos and the other items helped create a platform and relatable persona for Sarah," Golden says. Just as many restaurants have music playing softly in the background to accompany the food and stimulate appetites, the booth had its own version with a top-of-the-line stereo system playing Galletti's "Taste the Jams" playlist, a 102-song compilation of tunes such as "Peaches," "Mushroom," and "Cheesin'" coupled with video running on a large screen over the product shelves. (For those who didn't attend the show – and those who did and enjoyed the tracks – Tattooed Chef posted the playlist on its website and to this day updates it regularly with tunes Galletti curates, thereby extending its appearance at the show even further.)

In the nearby living-room-like lounge area, staff encouraged attendees to write on stickers what they "give a crop about" and post their expressions on an adjacent wall. The activity gave staff and visitors something more to talk about than frozen foods – however good they are for you. It was a canny move for an audience arguably predisposed to social concerns. Guests covered the wall with more than 250 stickers exclaiming everything from "Peace in Ukraine" and "Ending animal exploitation" to "Body positivity" and "Women's rights." Staffers then snapped a Polaroid of each visitor and stuck the pic next to his or her contribution on the wall.

In a novel twist on this sort of activity, those who wanted to voice their opinions more directly could pick up a retro landline phone the same bright crimson hue as staffers' shoes and leave a voicemail for Galletti. "This was a way for us to give our consumers a voice in the brand and hear what people are passionate about," Golden says.

Like any upscale restaurant, lingering was definitely on the menu. Staff steered current high-value customers and promising prospects to a private meeting area located on the second floor where they chatted while feasting on burritos and healthy food bowls. And during the last two hours of the show, in excess of 250 attended the happy hour the company invited attendees to in its mailing weeks before. Between snacks, libations, and the design-forward environment, Tattooed Chef furthered two of its main marketing goals: exposing partygoers to its extensive product lines and conveying the prestige of the brand.

Throughout NPE, the company used social media as kind of mirror world, allowing those who didn't attend to gain a fun, energetic sense of the brand as well as glimpse its menagerie of 40 new products. Tattooed Chef utilized Instagram Reels to run 15-second video clips of the booth's goings-on to create a kind of wish-you-were-here montage. And on TikTok, marketers posted energetic slice-of-life videos of the products, booth visitors, the "Give a Crop" wall, and Galletti herself, positioning her as a real person, friendly and approachable, who could make the brand gleam just a little more in the audience's eyes.

Veggie Tales
Sizzle Awards judges bestowed the company's integrated-marketing plan with a Michelin Star of praise. "I love the details," said one judge. "From its social-media posts to its 'What do you give a crop about?' message wall, Tattooed Chef provided the fun that helped people fall in love with the brand."

The early press release engaged 114 journalists along with 32 nutritionists and dietitians, giving the company wide pre-show exposure. While marketers' goal of elevating the brand is difficult to quantify, it's notable that the "Today" show, the Food Network, Taste of Home, and other powerhouse lifestyle and food- and-beverage media all gave the company some degree of coverage – and the hoped-for cachet. Online industry publications that covered the expo, such as VegOut Magazine, Big Box Vegan, and Naturally Zuzu, with hundreds of thousands of Instagram and Facebook followers combined, highlighted several of the company's products. All in all, Tattooed Chef marketers racked up more than 400,000 online impressions.

Perhaps most significantly, Tattooed Chef generated more than 100 qualified leads. While it guards the specific names of these blue-ribbon prospects with the ferocity Coca Cola guards its soft-drink recipe, the company had what it deemed "breakthrough meetings" with several major companies, including one major food distributor who visited four times, ending with its CEO, CMO, and sales execs sharing burritos with Tattooed Chef reps upstairs. So when it comes to results, you could say Tattooed Chef brought home the plant-based bacon.E