Based in Atlanta, Tropical Smoothie Cafe, a leading fast-casual cafe concept known for its smoothies with a tropical twist, was launching its very limited-time Citrus Cactus Smoothie. The smoothie was blended with fresh cactus, which has a very short shelf-life. In addition, cactus is found on only about two percent of all restaurant menus, so the ingredient itself was unfamiliar to consumers. With local and national media in mind, the challenge was to drive smoothie sales by securing as much press as possible in just two weeks in order to accommodate the smoothie’s availability across the U.S.

Given the incredibly short planning period and pitch timeline, we needed to act fast and efficiently. We created a pitch brief, media materials, digital press kit and media lists for national and local media across 10 target markets in just one week before pitching began. We targeted national online media along with local TV and print (such as major daily papers) throughout the U.S.

After two weeks of pitching, we secured media that reached a total audience of 80.4 million (no multipliers used), with placements on Fast Casual, ChewBoom, QSR Magazine, TrendHunter, Reader’s Digest, MSN, Beverage Industry and more. Northern local markets performed the best from a coverage perspective, as cactus was more unusual in the north.