3,603 placements and 44 awards for sustainable seafood
Shoppers discount every ocean claim on the shelf. Ten years of outside verdicts made Wild Planet impossible to wave away.
Scope
Agency of record for PR and social media from 2010 to 2020: media relations, social media management, blog content, influencer management and graphic design.
Ten years, multiple product launches, and one continuous argument to make on the brand’s behalf.
Challenge
Every seafood brand on the shelf claims to care about the ocean. Shoppers have learned to discount the claim, and Wild Planet was asking them to pay more on the strength of it: pole-and-line fishing costs more than netting, and that shows up on the price tag.
Worse, sustainability and flavor were treated as a trade-off. The assumption was that responsible seafood was the worthy choice, not the better one. Beating that meant winning two arguments with two different audiences at once.
What we did
Crier ran the decade as a continuous awards and rankings operation, entering Wild Planet into two distinct sets of judges: the taste awards food editors run, and the environmental rankings advocacy groups publish.
Winning both mattered more than winning either. A Greenpeace ranking answers the ethics question; a Men’s Health or Clean Eating award answers the dinner question. Together they retire the trade-off.
Because PR and social sat under one roof, every accolade worked more than once: a press story, a social moment, blog content and designed assets from a single win. Ten years of that compounds into a body of proof no competitor could assemble quickly.
Results
3,603 placements and 44 awards between 2010 and 2020, as revenues grew ten-fold from when we started.
The environmental verdicts were the ones that moved buyers: Greenpeace ranked Wild Planet the #1 tuna brand for sustainability seven separate times, and Whole Foods, the retailer whose shelf mattered most, named it Global Supplier of the Year and gave it an Environmental Stewardship Award.
On social
In the January 2019 to February 2020 year alone the program delivered 325.3M impressions, 41.9K engagements and 10,780 new followers.
A purpose-driven brand gives a feed something to say between product posts. The fishing methods, the sourcing and the awards themselves were the content, which is why engagement held across a decade rather than spiking around launches.
“Wildly Communicative PR People. I am really loving the use of the word Wildly, which is becoming a ubiquitous identifier of our culture. This is really good isn’t it, and you folks have not missed an opportunity to leverage it to the full in your great reports. I think we are probably getting spoiled that every month we have such positive news.”
What the judges awarded
The short answers
What did Crier Communications do for Wild Planet Foods?
Crier Communications was Wild Planet Foods’ agency of record for public relations and social media from 2010 to 2020, covering media relations, social media management, blog content, influencer management and graphic design for the sustainable seafood brand.
What results did the Wild Planet PR program deliver?
The decade-long program generated 3,603 media placements and 44 industry awards for taste and sustainability, as Wild Planet grew revenues ten-fold. Social delivered 325.3 million impressions, 41,900 engagements and 10,780 new followers between January 2019 and February 2020 alone.
Which awards did Wild Planet Foods win?
Greenpeace ranked Wild Planet the number one tuna brand for sustainability seven times. Whole Foods named it Global Supplier of the Year and gave it an Environmental Stewardship Award. The brand also won eight Men’s Health Best Foods for Men Awards, seven Clean Eating Clean Choice Awards, seven Prevention Healthiest Packaged Food Awards, four Women’s Health Supermarket Stars Awards and two Men’s Fitness Healthiest Food Awards.
How do you build credibility for a sustainable seafood brand?
By winning two different sets of judges. Environmental rankings from advocacy groups answer the ethics question, while taste awards run by food editors answer the dinner question. Winning both retires the assumption that sustainable seafood is the worthy choice rather than the better one.
Case studies
Halo Top
Ten flavors launched in ten days: 51 placements and 507M readership.
Holy Grail Steak Co.
Pitched as a luxury good, not a grocery: 72 placements and 5.08B readership.
Rigoni di Asiago
A century-old Italian brand introduced to America: #1 on Time’s Nutella alternatives ranking.
Let us tell your story
Twenty years of earning coverage for CPG food, home and wellness brands.
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