International Fruit Genetics (IFG) is the inventor of many popular breeds of grapes and cherries, but they did not have much brand recognition outside of some niche industries. IFG began breeding grapes and cherries in 2001, but in spite of being in business for 20 years, it was largely unknown. The business wanted to change this and become known on a global scale.
IFG initially contacted Bastion Elevate, a digital marketing agency, for public relations services. The company had some successful intellectual property court rulings that they wanted to have announced. After seeing success with that, IFG worked with Bastion Elevate to create goals to increase brand recognition globally.
The Objectives
Bastion Elevate helped IFG identify several objectives and goals to help increase awareness and the authority of IFG on a global scale.
- Secure media placements in the top tier national and international media outlets.
- Gain global recognition for IFG’s executive leadership team.
- Increase brand awareness.
- Build a strong online community and presence.
The Results
Six months later, we have successfully met and exceeded IFG’s goals. We used a combination of thought leadership articles, press release creation and distribution, social media marketing, paid advertisements, media relations and monitoring, and trade show representation to achieve IFG’s goals.
Secure Media Placements
We worked with IFG to draft and place thought leadership articles in some of the leading media outlets in the industry, including Hort News in New Zealand and Tecnología Hortícola in Spain. We also created and secured over 60 paid advertising opportunities in media outlets. IFG has now had 47 media placements, and its circulation has reached approximately 392 million people.
To gain recognition by more than just the industry, we then worked to get media placements in some national consumer media, including Better Homes & Gardens Magazine and AllRecipe.com. This put IFG in front of the consumers, elevating the mainstream awareness of their brand and fruit varieties. By doing this, consumers were now aware of who bred the well-known and wildly popular Cotton Candy Grapes and could seek out other varieties of IFG’s sweet grapes and sweet cherries.
Global Recognition for the Executive Team
While the media articles were a good first step, in order to gain recognition for IFG’s executive team, we worked to secure interviews for them with trade publications, radio stations, and news outlets. As a result, IFG now has prominent feature articles in Progressive Grocer, The Produce News, and Asiafruit Magazine.
Then we secured speaking engagements for the IFG executive team at some of the top international virtual conferences, including the Global Grape Congress. IFG has also been present at four trade shows, increasing awareness and positioning its executives as experts in the field.
Increase Brand Awareness
By securing these placements in international media outlets and consumer media, we began to increase their brand recognition. But to take it a step further, we worked with IFG to create and announce branded logos for their collection of grape varieties.
IFG’s expansion plans, intellectual property cases, and new grape varieties were announced through press releases. The company released several new grape varieties in 2020, so using press releases and branding got the word out about these new sweet table grapes.
Build an Online Community
To build a strong online community, a brand needs to have a presence on social media. To achieve this for IFG, we crafted a social media strategy that, between January and July of 2021, increased community engagement and followers on every social media platform. We did this by working to create an authoritative and interesting brand voice that consumers enjoy engaging with online.
On LinkedIn, their followers went up by 59 percent, and their engagement increased by 293 percent. IFG’s Facebook followers jumped by 130 percent, and its engagement went up by 360 percent. On Instagram, IFG’s followers increased by 98 percent, and their engagement increased by 233 percent.
Final Thoughts
IFG came to Bastion Elevate as a 20-year-old fruit breeding business that had little recognition outside of the niche markets. While some of their fruit varieties were well known, the brand name itself was largely unknown. By using a multi-pronged approach to their marketing strategy, they went from a fairly unknown brand to well known experts in the industry and global thought leaders. Consumers and businesses alike have now heard of IFG and its fruit varieties. Public relations can be an important part of a business’ marketing strategy, as we see in IFG’s transformation to a global power.
Laila Azzahra is a professional writer and blogger that loves to write about technology, business, entertainment, science, and health.