Culinary Campaign

The Wisconsin season of Bravo’s Top Chef is an opportunity to elevate perceptions of Wisconsin as a culinary destination, amplify Wisconsin’s food story and inspire visitors to travel by fork across the state. Travel Wisconsin is taking full advantage of the Top Chef spotlight on the state. 

How bright is the spotlight? Top Chef is an international phenomenon that airs in more than 185 territories worldwide. Millions of viewers will see this season live, in re-runs and through streaming. Think of it as a season-long infomercial for Wisconsin and our food! The New York Times called Bravo’s Top Chef “one of the most influential forces shaping the way Americans think about restaurants and chefs.”   

Our Top Chef integrated marketing and public relations campaign highlights all Wisconsin has to offer and aligns with Travel Wisconsin’s brand positioning, inspiring travelers to make magical memories together through unforgettable experiences special to our state. The campaign’s creative invites us along to share exciting adventures, quality time with friends and family and dig into all of the delicious options across the state.  

Here’s the delicious dish for each component of the culinary campaign: 

National Television Spots

For the first time ever, Travel Wisconsin will air a nationally televised ad. Expanding out from our traditional 13 markets in and around Wisconsin, thanks to one-time funds, we’re showcasing the beauty and fun Wisconsin offers memory makers across America throughout the Wisconsin season of Top Chef on Bravo.

Additionally, we've incorporated a culinary component into our 2024 seasonal and foundational campaign videos. 

Website

TravelWisconsin.com will leverage Top Chef by serving up the freshest article content to inspire traveling by fork, including culinary road trip ideas, food and locations featured on the show, as well as chef and food stories from across Wisconsin. 

In addition, we’ve launched a dedicated landing page for all things Top Chef. The page builds on the locations and stories on Top Chef to share Wisconsin’s refreshing perspective on food and drink across the state and inspire visitors to travel by fork when planning their next Wisconsin vacation. It also features an interactive map that includes locations the judges visited, culinary gems across Wisconsin and locations featured on the episodes (added each week). 

Social

Across platforms, we're focusing on sharing culinary content and generating engagement through mouthwatering food throughout the state. In addition, weekly episode recaps highlighting the locations and food featured on the show will go live the following day. 

Digital

We will include culinary ads across digital advertising, including Native and Paid Search. Across all of these mediums, we’ll share food and dining-related content, to provide relevant and timely information for audiences.

Email Marketing

With the surge of highly engaged, cuisine-interested users heading to our new culinary landing page, we anticipate an increase in e-newsletter sign-ups. To captivate this new audience and leverage the current subscribers aligned with culinary interests, we’ll infuse must-try food and drink into the Wisconsin Traveler email and create a Top Chef hype email.

Publications

We’ve dialed up the drool-worthy food content featured in the Wisconsin Travel Guide and the Wisconsin Traveler Magazine. This includes a culinary-focused print piece inserted into the spring/summer Wisconsin Traveler Magazine (available in April 2024). We plan to extend the reach by inserting the print insert in Food and Wine magazine’s summer edition (out in June).

Culinary Passport

Coming soon is a Wisconsin Culinary Passport, aimed at driving visitation across the state using the popular platform, Bandwango. This free, digital passport will allow users access to exclusive offers and an opportunity to earn points to be used towards prizes by visiting partner locations statewide. Tentative launch date is May 2024.

Feast or Fiction

Inspired by the successful Fest or Fiction game on TravelWisconsin.com, we’ve been inspired to reinvent a tasty spinoff. The game will invite participants to answer fun questions about Wisconsin’s culinary offerings and give them a chance to win prizes. This culinary-themed sweepstakes will educate users on Wisconsin’s food culture while driving website traffic and email subscriptions.