Napoleon Grills; the internationally renowned barbecue and outdoor kitchen specialist, sponsored the Big BBQ Cookout at cinch presents CarFest 2023, hosted by ‘First Ladies of Cue’ Sam Evans and Shauna Guinn. The on-stage chef line-up for 2023 included Napoleon guest chefs, and household names, Omar Allibhoy, Neil Rankin, and Adam Purnell aka The Shropshire Lad. They were joined by Angela Hartnett, James Golding, Rex de Guzman, Glynn Purnell, Ian Bursnall, Owen Morgan, The Happy Pear, Michael Caines, Matt Tebbutt and Freddy Bird. CarFest, founded by Radio presenter Chris Evans in 2012, is the UK’s greatest family festival, hosting an extravagant celebration of cars, music and food, all in aid of raising money for UK children’s charities. CarFest entered its 12th year this August, and promised to be the best yet. With enough activities and attractions to keep the whole family entertained, it’s the perfect way to spend the Bank Holiday weekend.
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Overview
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Napoleon Grills are internationally renowned barbecue and outdoor kitchen specialists offering a range of high-quality gas, charcoal, electric and portable barbecues, bespoke outdoor kitchens and a wide range of grilling accessories, and new for 2021 a range of premium Electric Fireplaces.

Whilst they are considered market leaders overseas, they have remained a lesser-known challenger brand to existing household names in the UK.

Mason Williams joined the team in 2019 to spark a revolution for Napoleon Grills in the UK. We were tasked to take on big-name competitors such as Weber, Char-Broil, Kamado Joe and Big Green Egg. Our communications strategy set out to deliver game-changer brand visibility, create a national coverage campaign, drive significant new traffic to the website, manage a strategic and targeted social and digital campaign and ultimately convert shoppers to boost sales!

Our Approach
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• Producing a comprehensive and targeted 360 multi-media Press Office plan for the national, consumer, trade and specialist media with bespoke video content, news, surveys, reviews, insights and promotions
• Executing an engaging digital campaign to build, develop and utilise platforms including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube, all with the goal to drive traffic back to the UK website
• Devising a highly targeted paid search & ad campaign across social platforms and Google Search & Display using keywords to place Napoleon above competitors and drive overall impressions and clicks
• Dominating National BBQ Week with a nationwide radio broadcast campaign with celebrity chef Genevieve Taylor as the brand spokeswoman
• Teaming up with likeminded luxury brands for joint promotions and shared marketing activity. This included 5* hotels such as The Grove, The Fish Hotel and The Trafalgar St James, fashion sites like Mint Velvet, leading beer brand Krombacher and international wine brand Kumala Wines (in which we branded over 700,000 bottles across 5,000 stores including Tesco, Asda, Nisa, Costcutter and McColls)
• Partnering with global brands Heinz and Coke for a large-scale Summer BBQ supermarket promotion which ran across 2,500 Co-Op stores
• Producing an exclusive celebrity cook-off campaign with famous faces from sport, TV, entertainment and cooking and seeding this online, names included Jamie Roberts, Darren Gough, Julia Bradbury and Neil Rankin
• Working with the biggest and best British barbecue influencers such as BBQ Lads and aligning with them to tell Napoleon’s story directly to their dedicated audiences
• Celebrity sampling in exchange for social media content and support, this included Tyson Fury, Harry Judd, Scott Williams and Jason Roy
• Signing A-lister British chefs including Ben Tish, Omar Allibhoy, Adam Reid and Hylton Espey to become ambassadors for the brand, produce recipe content and represent us at Live events
• Negotiating a deal for Napoleon Grills be the Kitchen stage sponsor for the largest festival in the UK, CarFest, which included hosting the UK’s biggest celebrity chefs on our grills, extensive branding across the show and marketing materials and a dedicated mini-stage and sales area
• Securing National TV promotions for ‘Star Prizes’ on Saturday night Prime Time shows including Tipping Point, Gino’s Win Your Wishlist and Alan Carr’s Epic Gameshow
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Results
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• Coverage secured across every national newspaper in the UK (multiple times) as well as prime TV, print, online and radio features across the British media landscape
• The highest share of voice of any relative brand in any barbecue related consumer news or feature in the UK
• Exposure to hundreds of millions of people via every possible platform, including 50,000 up-close and in person at CarFest.
• A 581% increase in website visits and exponential growth of social media followers and engagement
• Two ‘sell out’ years in a row, sales went up over 500% (YoY) with over £1million sales taken in just one out-of-season Winter month, resulting in a nation-wide stock shortage and months long ‘waiting list’ for the very first time in the brand’s UK market