2017 PARTNERSHIPS

TRUFFLE MELBOURNE

trufflemelbourne.com

THE WORLD’S TASTIEST GAME OF HIDE & SEEK

Inspired by European truffle celebrations, we introduced Melbourne to the world truffle festival stage in 2014 with the support of the best chef line-up seen in a single weekend Melbourne food festival. Come 2016, we’re now the largest truffle festival weekend outside Europe. Leading chefs and outstanding artisan producers have embraced the festival program – they appreciate our contribution to Melbourne’s and Adelaide’s culinary event calendar. This year 32,000 enthusiasts celebrated superb fresh Australian truffles, and their fragrant food and drink partners across the three month winter truffle season at twenty four events in Melbourne, Regional Victoria and Adelaide, making our 2016 program a tasty sell-out success!

Our free season opening weekend at Prahran Market featured patron Celebrity Chef Guy Grossi who wowed audiences with a favourite truffle dish – the ‘prince and the pauper’. Others demonstrated simple truffle recipes for the home kitchen, while fragrant and fancy fare provided perfect eye candy for the sponsored free food photography classes to capture and share. Festival goers feasted on delectable truffle treats from Melbourne’s best chefs and artisan producers. Truffle hounds Spice and Arrow were anointed Melbourne’s favourite truffle hunters. Fresh truffles and truffle produce graced household kitchens across town- there were so many truffle treats to take home to savour!

Guy Grossi - Celebrity Chef

In July, our Red Hill Pop-Up Weekend on the Mornington Peninsula delighted guests with tantalising tastes and behind-the-scenes insights into local partnerships between the truffle farmer and nearby brewers, cheese-makers, distillers and others. Superb truffle and wine pairings and yet more truffle dishes tickled tastebuds. Others enjoyed entertaining and tempting chef demonstrations, learning about truffle hunting dogs, taking in the view and admiring the truffle themed sculpture pieces.

Throughout the winter months, exquisite truffle feasts across Melbourne catered for every taste - from casual truffle lunches inspired by medieval truffle recipes to high end dinners at Melbourne’s best restaurants – everyone was “talking truffle”. In Adelaide, the Sunday Grand Truffle Long Table Luncheon at the Central Market was enjoyed by 180 guests, declaring it the city’s best truffle meal of the season.

Finally, the post events survey of our 2016 guests revealed exceptionally high satisfaction rankings with 88% saying they “absolutely loved” the event they attended or found it “enjoyable”. Encouraged and informed by that feedback, we’ll be back in 2017 with a stronger, richer program, when we’ll bring a whole new world of truffles to you. We’re working hard with producers around the globe to showcase even more truffle treats – we look forward to sharing those with you in 2017.

NIGEL WOOD Festival Director, October 2016

You can never have too much truffleClick through to view video

180 GUESTS

ENJOYED THE LONG TABLE LUNCHEON, DECLARING IT

ADELAIDE'S BEST TRUFFLE MEAL OF THE

SEASON

2016 SNAPSHOT

32,000attendees across 24 events in Melbourne, Regional Victoria and Adelaide

88.2%of attendees “absolutely loved it” or found the event they attended “enjoyable”

MAIN MELBOURNE event was free and

attracted 28,000 guests

MORE THAN $1.5M in PR media including TV,

radio, print and online

36% GROWTH in social media audience-

Facebook, Instagram and Twitter

1,474,500 social impressions across

all owned channels

MAJOR new tourism event in Regional Victoria on the Mornington Peninsula

32,000 ATTENDEES ACROSS 24 EVENTS

2016 PROGRAM

TRUFFLE MELBOURNE

9 June Media Launch with Celebrity Chef Guy Grossi

18 - 19 June Free Festival Opening Weekend at Prahran Market

10 July Truffle Masterclass at The Craft & Co, Collingwood

16 - 17 July Red Hill Pop Up Weekend, Morning Peninsula

June- August 14 weekend truffle hunts

June- August Truffle lunches and dinners in Melbourne and Regional Victoria

TRUFFLE ADELAIDE

30 June – 2 July Free Festival at Central Market

3 July Sunday Grand Truffle Long Table Luncheon, Central Market

OUTSTANDING SOCIAL MEDIA ENGAGEMENTThe festival program drew a strong social media following with overall impressions and audience growth increasing across the winter months. The reach was exceptional and demonstrated that we are no longer a niche program.

SOCIAL IMPRESSIONS ACROSS ALL OWNED CHANNELS

TOTAL AUDIENCE GROWTH

1,474,500 1,986 / 36.3%5,462 TO 7,448

364,000

574,000

531,500

AUDIENCE GROWTH BY CHANNEL

EMAIL 1,220 to 1,971 = 751 new likes (62% increase)

INSTAGRAM 1,419 to 2,128 = 709 new likes (49% increase)

FACEBOOK 2,350 to 2,771 = 412 new likes (18% increase)

TWITTER 473 to 578 = 105 new likes (22% increase)

$1.5M IN MEDIA AND PR REACHED 3 MILLION PEOPLE

STRONG LOCAL AND NATIONAL MEDIA INTERESTFor the third year in a row, the festival program generated in excess of $1.5M in media interest including national, Melbourne metro, regional, rural, Adelaide metro, SA regional and some international media attention. The media relations campaign ran over seven months, beginning with February’s Melbourne Herald Sun anointing Truffle Melbourne as “one of the year’s best food festivals” and concluding with photographs gracing the social pages in August.

Mainstream media included Channel 9 news Melbourne, Channel 7 news Adelaide; two Page 3 stories in the Australian Financial Review; Jetstar Inflight Magazine as well as ongoing exposure in The Age, The Australian, The Herald & Weekly Times; radio with 3AW, 774 Melbourne, 3 RRR, Joy FM and 5AA Adelaide.

Online stories featured strongly in The Urban List, Broadsheet, Australian Gourmet Traveller and a host of others.

Festival Director Nigel Wood with Channel 7

The key messages were to drive visitation to the festival’s hero events and to inform readers, viewers and listeners about our ‘democratisation of the truffle’ – making truffles an accessible seasonal treat for a wider audience, while still retaining their aspirational allure.

2016 saw our strongest chef demonstration program yet, huge interest in the truffle dogs and live regional truffle hunts, together with our strongest ever exhibitor support. New and engaging partner and own content saw increased visitation across the three-month event program and the seven month media campaign.

ATTRACTIVE & ASPIRATIONAL

BRANDING, WITH ENGAGING VIDEO & OTHER

RESOURCES

PROMOTIONSAttractive and aspirational branding - posters, print ads, postcards, signage and printed programs - complemented social and conventional media/PR investments.

1 Melbourne metro and regional press ads supported the 2016 campaign, this one in Time Out

2 A3 posters were distributed across the Mornington Peninsula to support the Red Hill Pop Up Weekend

3 10,000 postcards were distributed to Melbourne venues by Mr Moto

16 – 17 July Truffle Melbourne Pop Up Weekend @ Max’s Restaurant, Red Hill Estate

Red Hill South, Mornington Peninsula

Tickets & more info at trufflemelbourne.com

1 2

3

VIDEOAs part of our campaign to expand our audience and their appreciation for the truffle, we produced four high production value, fun videos showing just how easy truffles are to use at home – like the one featured here.

These resources were supported by engaging content in our own and partner eDMs, and by partner competitions which generated further interest and engagement.

MORE ABOUT OUR AUDIENCESWe have a fiercely loyal core audience built over three years, complemented by a strongly growing group of new fans. Visitor satisfaction across all of our events is extremely high. 46% said they “Absolutely Loved” - our Season Opening weekend, and 85% or better ranked each and every event very favourably.

Qualitative data from an audience survey has provided excellent feedback for informing our 2017 program and this complements the commissioned market research findings from Roy Morgan’s Helix Persona’s database. The comprehensive report highlights the four leading demographics interested in truffles and/or a truffle experience are:

• ‘200 Metrotechs’ – Well educated high income young singles

• ‘100 Leading Lifestyles’ – High income families, typically own their home in the inner suburbs

• 600 Golden Years’ – Conservative, risk averse retirees, focussed on health, security and maintaining an income from investments or the pension

• ‘300 Today’s Families’ – Young families in the outer suburbs living up to their above average incomes

Across all 2016 events, 79% ranked “tasting and purchasing food, drink and truffle related produce” as extremely important, while 69% ranked “enjoying a different food experience in winter” as extremely important.

30% of our guests were aged 24 – 34, 24% were 35 – 44 and 24% were 45 – 54. The gender split is even across men and women. 25.6% of guests are inner suburban Melbourne dwellers, 35.2% are in Middle suburbs, 16.0% in Outer Melbourne, 17.6% in Regional Victoria, 4.0% Interstate and 1.6% Internationals. 81% of survey respondents said they were keen to join a Truffle Melbourne Member Program if established.

Our 2016 attendees found us through a variety of media including social media, our email database (33%) and friends or family (23%), while 25% of guests were repeat visitors from 2015 or 2014.

The Truffle Melbourne and Truffle Adelaide websites were continually updated during the 2016 season program and a Beta version of an iOS App was trialled to locate our events, identify where truffles could be purchased, where they were on the menu and also to update subscribers with the latest truffle news. The website improved the bounce rate by more than 10% over 2015 results - a significant gain.

WHAT OUR GUESTS SAY...

The festival program is unique and different. Truffles are so exclusive, expensive & seen as something ‘normal’ cooks and people don’t buy. Your festival makes us feel special and part of the exclusivity!!

My first taste of truffles ever. Now I understand what all the fuss is about.

Loved spending time with friends at a winery, watching top chefs cook with truffles… being immersed in all things truffle and surrounded by others who understand.

The masterclass style cooking demonstrations at the Red Hill Pop Up were special.Knowing how to cook with truffles was really valuable and stuff I now do at home.

Not only was the food delicious, but it was lovely to learn more about truffles. And cuddle the truffle dogs!

Andy Harmer The Point, Albert Park

Brendan Bertelot L’Hotel Gitan, South Yarra

Carmine Constantini Osteria La Passione, Richmond

Damian Sandercock, Piper Street Food Co, Kyneton

Dom Marzano The Craft & Co, Collingwood

Flo Gerardin Oter, Melbourne

Guy Grossi Grossi Florentino, Melbourne

James Mele The Meat Room, Kyneton East

Jeffrey Tan Executive Chef, Melbourne

Jesse Gerner Bomba, Melbourne

Joe Vargetto- Massi Melbourne & Mister Bianco, Kew, Victoria

Lewis Taylor The Atheneum Club, Melbourne

Marlene Hoff 100 Mile Foodie, Mornington Peninsula

Max Paganoni Max’s Restaurant, Red Hill, Mornington Peninsula

Michael Cole Georgie Bass Cooking School, Flinders

Nicky Reimer Union Dining, Richmond

Paul Wilson Wilson + Merchant, Prahran

Philippe Mouchel Philippe Restaurant, Melbourne

Sam Gant MasterChef 2014, Northcote

Sara Hinchey The Truffle Hound, Carlton

Scott Pickett Estelle, Northcote; Saint Crispin, Collingwood and Pickett’s Deli and Rotisserie, Melbourne

Shannon Bennett Vue de monde & Bistro Vue, Melbourne

Simon Bryant The Cook & The Chef, Dirty, Adelaide

Stuart Oldfield Handmade Catering, Barossa Valley

Bass & Flinders Distillery, Red Hill, Victoria

Gourmet Pawprints, Melbourne

Grand Millesime, Fine Wines, South Yarra

La Truffiere, Bungendore, NSW

Madame Truffles, Melbourne & Sydney

Marco Marinelli, The Mushroom Man, Adelaide Central Market

Meat Maiden, Melbourne

Merricks General Wine Store, Merricks, Victoria

Olieve + Olie, Rosebud, Victoria

Peninsula Larder, Seaford, Victoria

Piper Street Food Co, Kyneton

Red Hill Brewery, Red Hill, Victoria

Red Hill Cheese, Red Hill, Victoria

Red Hill Roast Coffee, Red Hill, Victoria

Tamar Valley Truffles, Tasmania

Tarago Olives, Jindivick, West Gippsland, Victoria

Danielle Field, MP Experience, Red Hill, Mornington Peninsula

Dion Range Stonebarn Truffles, Pemberton, WA

Fabio Deitos Oak Valley Truffles, Manjimup, WA

Gavin and Mel Booth Australian Truffle Traders, Manjimup, WA

Jenny McAuley Red Hill Truffles, Red Hill, Victoria

Joelle Dulac La Truffiere, Bungendore, NSW

John Bailey, Marcus and Sarah Jessup Tamar Valley Truffles, Launceston, Tasmania

Lynette and Andres Haas Black Cat Truffles, Victoria

Noel Fitzpatrick- Black Truffle Harvest, Gippsland, Victoria

Sue and Sharon Daly Truffle Treasures, Goldfields Region, Victoria

CHEF AND RESTAURANT PARTNERS EXHIBITOR AND PRODUCER PARTNERS

TRUFFLE GROWER AND TRUFFLE HUNT PARTNERS

MAJOR SPONSOR AND VENUE PARTNERS

Adelaide Central Market, Adelaide, SA

Akarba Party Hire, Mornington Peninsula, Victoria

Australian Truffle Traders, Manjimup, WA

Bank of Melbourne, Melbourne

Bistro Vue, Melbourne

Bomba Restaurant, Melbourne

Flinders Hotel and Georgie Bass Cooking School, Flinders Victoria

Grossi Florentino Restaurant, Melbourne

Ilve Appliances, National

Max’s Restaurant, Red Hill, Victoria

Michaels Camera Store and Canon Cameras, Melbourne

National Australia Bank, National

Philippe Restaurant, Melbourne

Prahran Market, Prahran, Victoria

Red Hill Estate Wines, Red Hill, Victoria

Stonebarn Truffles, Pemberton, WA

The Lane Vineyard, Adelaide Hills, SA

The Point, Albert Park

Vue de monde, Melbourne

CULINARY TOURISM AND INDUSTRY DEVELOPMENTAs truffle growers ourselves, we’re committed to boosting interest in culinary tourism associated with truffles – both in the Melbourne and Adelaide CBDs and in regional areas where truffles are grown and local producer partnerships flourish. The parallels with the Australian wine industry are strong. Truffle related tourism is growing rapidly and Victoria has the advantage of several truffle growing areas being located within an easy 90 minute drive from the CBD, so culinary tourism growth in and around Melbourne has been directly fostered by Truffle Melbourne and our extensive Regional Victorian event program.

The Truffle Melbourne and Truffle Adelaide festivals are now well established in those city’s culinary calendars and their respective media campaigns capture gourmet food lovers and experience seeking audiences during the winter low traffic season.

The festival programs are much anticipated by truffle aficionados, while the growth in participation and engagement across 2016 demonstrates that the program is now mainstream, rather than a niche event.

A RICHER & STRONGER 2017 PROGRAM• Free festival opening weekend

at Queen Victoria Market – 17 & 18 June

• New Truffle Melbourne pop up retail offering with “everything truffle”

• New website with fresh truffles and truffle produce available online for home delivery

• New Truffle Tribe Members Club

• New partnering opportunities throughout the 2017 program

CONTACT

Nigel Wood, Director

M: +61 (0)408 176617 E: nigel@trufflemelbourne.com

THE TRUFFLE MELBOURNE TEAM

NIGEL WOOD Festival Director

nigel@trufflemelbourne.com 0408 176 617

DARIA WRAY Event Operations Manager

daria@trufflemelbourne.com

TARA BISHOP PR Director, Bishop Moves misstarabishop@gmail.com

KIRSTEENE PHELAN Social Media Director

kirseteenephelan@gmail.com

JOSH LIPSCOMBE Social Media Advisor

SUE BRIMACOMBE Truffle Dog Trainer & Hunter

WE LOVE CODE Website

ASHLEIGH HILLS & TRACEY SKINNER Graphic Design

GIULIA MORLANDO, FOTOSTAZIONE & ENNIS ROWLAND-WOOD

Photographers

MONSTER & BEAR Video Production

ROY MORGAN RESEARCH Market Research

trufflemelbourne.com