From various researches, we realized that there was a massive gap between well-known chefs and young talents, with the latter struggling to emerge in a competitive scenario. The opportunity was a perfect fit for S.Pellegrino. Moreover, we noticed the absence of a global culinary competition able to involve all the countries around a competition with a very savvy twist.

We conceived S.Pellegrino Young Chefs Award to serve as an original and engaging new brand storytelling platform enabling us to position S.Pellegrino at the international forefront and intersection of trendsetting gourmet food and fashion. We involved well known top chefs as program mentors and contest jurors to create strong endorsement behind the project and the brand among the food world. But we introduced a surprise creative twist to drive international attention and conversation: the winning signature dishes would inspire some of Vogue Italia’s leading designers to imagine innovative new “food-inspired” fashions.

Three phases to maximize social conversation and media attention:

Calls for Talents: We invited young chefs to participate using S.Pellegrino branded content platform: finedininglovers.com from 20 geographical areas. ALMA selected top 10 chef finalists in every region, based on chef’s ability to demonstrate the Golden Rules: ingredients, skills, genius, beauty, message.

Regional competitions: Top 10 Regional finalists competed at local events, heavily covered by media. Local juries of famous chefs and representatives of local gastronomy scene chose the regional winners. Simultaneously, Vogue Italia featured 20 emerging designers and a fashion creation directly inspired by the winning signature dishes of the young chefs.

Final election: The final event held in June in Milan. An international jury of famous chefs awarded the S.Pellegrino Young Chef. A jury of designers awarded the S.Pellegrino Best Designer. The event was attended by an elite group of gastronomy and fashion lovers who voted the Best Couple

Strong engagement program

• More than 3,000 young chefs in 25 countries applied to the competition

• Almost 100 top chefs involved in all the phases

Exceptional international media cover and social response: a ROI of + 400%

• 3,200 articles published around the world

• 3.2 BILLION impressions generated

• 60 journalists cover the Finale Event

• 2.100 tweets with #SPYoungChef by chefs, guests, journalists and foodies around the world, for 26 million impressions

• 514 Instagram pics shared by chefs, guests, journalists

• 1000 mentions of finedininglovers.com in the coverage

• FINEDININGLOVERS.COM: +40% VS 2014

• FACEBOOK PAGE FINEDININGLOVERS.COM: 4,587,786 +23% vs 2014

• TWITTER ACCOUNT FINEDININGLOVERS.COM: +43% vs 2014

• YOUTUBE FINEDININGLOVERS.COM CHANNEL: 85,000 VIEWS

• Vogue coverage of the project (3 offline + 28 online) reached approx 9 million contacts, 95,000 pages viewed and 70,000 unique visits