Grand Opening
Situation
McCord Butchery is a locally owned and operated meat, seafood and provisions market opened by Chef Samuel McCord and his wife Jackie. McCord Butchery offers the “old school” butcher and chef-driven experience that used to be the norm so many years ago. The European style shop sells premium 30+ dry aged USDA prime and Wagyu beef as well as all-natural pork, poultry, veal, lamb and fresh seafood. In addition to the protein selections McCord’s offers wine, locally sourced beer, unique liquor, and selection of specialty provisions like oils, dry rubs, brine and more.
McCord sought partnership with Gambel Communications to help them execute a grand opening/ribbon cutting, launch social media pages and define the brand in the market.
Strategy
The vision statement of McCord Butchery is to provide the finest quality meats, seafood, specialty items and other provisions to our customers while partnering with local farmers, fishermen and suppliers, creating a sustainable business supporting our community. McCord’s is committed to its customers and the community it serves, their mission is to offer high-quality products as well as suggest Chef-Driven cooking methods and applications while educating them about where our food comes from.
To ensure the Grand Opening and brand received the attention they deserved, Gambel developed a strategic plan integrating both traditional media relations, community outreach and social media launch. Gambel built an editorial calendar with key storylines including the store opening, business profile of McCord social media branding, and education of what the store experience would bring to consumers.
For the branding Gambel connected McCord with Studio Mundi.
Gambel Communications organized a grand opening/ribbon cutting event engaging community and business leaders from Jefferson Chamber of Commerce, Jefferson Parish Economic Development Commission (JEDCO), Jefferson Parish President, Jefferson Parish Council and the Louisiana Small Business Development Center. To increase earned media for the shop opening Gambel developed and pitched storylines to secure media mentions and attendance. Gambel secured media coverage including broadcast television segments featuring meats and products that would be available at the shop. Gambel also coordinated media tours and a “Friends & Family” soft opening prior to March 9.
Gambel also executed the launch of McCord Butchery Instagram and Facebook pages. Gambel’s strategy included strategic content themes that align with the goal of increasing foot traffic to the store following the opening. Gambel identified short-form video as the ideal post type... In addition to building posts for the news feed Gambel trained store employees on the use of Instagram stories for daily specials. Gambel identified that due to algorithms changes running daily specials in the 24-hour story would be more effective than running in newsfeeds.
Results
As a direct result of Gambel’s media and community relations efforts, McCord Butchery received nearly 2 dozen story placements reaching an estimated 2.2M readers, including featured placements in Louisiana Cookin’ Magazine, Eater NOLA and CityBusiness New Orleans.
The launch of McCord Butchery Instagram and Facebook pages was also highly successful with the following organic content key performance indicators.
Audience: 867
Total published posts: 103
Engagement rate: 4.48%
Impressions: 52,915
Audience: 631 followers
Total published posts: 82
Engagement rate: 13.04%
Impressions: 54,568