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Background:

MuscleFood.com is an online food retailer. Originally the business was set up with fitness fans and gym goers in mind, selling high protein meat at affordable prices. It quickly became popular with money saving mums and dads looking for ways to save cash by buying meat in bulk to feed their hungry families. Over the years the business evolved to launch its own health and fitness programme and a range of ready, prepped meals.

The brand had never teamed up with a celebrity chef to create a range of meals so the partnership with Levi Roots was a new and exciting opportunity for them.

Levi Roots shot to fame in 2007 after he appeared on Dragons’ Den, successfully pitching his Reggae Reggae Sauce. Since then he has seen his range grow with Caribbean inspired cooking sauces, ready meals, soft drinks and desserts. 

As MuscleFood.com had never previously partnered with a celebrity chef, this collaboration marked a significant strategic shift for the brand, positioning it not only as a supplier of fitness-focused food but also as a lifestyle choice with family and foodie appeal. It was essential that the campaign bridged these audiences without alienating the other.

Our brief was to create a buzz around the launch of the range with Levi Roots. The PR campaign needed to tie in with activities planned by the marketing team, aimed at influencers.

We needed to target mass market media, to reach the fans of the MuscleFood brand and the audience this particular product was aimed at including foodies, fitness fans, healthy eaters, busy professionals and families.

At Motive we love to get our teeth into a great food and drink PR campaign. So it was an absolute joy to get the chance to work with one of our favourite ever Dragon's Den contestants Levi Roots when he launched a new range of healthy ready meals in collaboration with our long standing client MuscleFood.

Our focus was on quality mass media coverage including a combination of a press launch, taste tests and interviews with the iconic founder of the Reggae Reggae Sauce brand.

Strategy:

Our goal was to create a buzz around the exciting collaboration between MuscleFood.com and Levi Roots so potential customers will have heard about it before it even landed on site.

The range included four tasty Caribbean dishes created by Levi, all under 500 calories and packed with flavour.

The Caribbean Salmon Recipe Kit and Reggae Reggae Jerk Chicken Recipe Kit, both provided ingredients and recipes for the dishes for customers to cook at home. The Caribana Chicken Pot and Sunshine Chicken Pot were pre-prepared meals which customers just needed to heat up before enjoying. 

All four were nutritionally balanced, high in protein and low in sugar to meet MuscleFood’s brand values.

Having worked with MuscleFood for a number of years, we’d built a good database of journalists who enjoyed samples of new products and that’s where we started when it came to creating a buzz.

We reached out to the media offering them samples of the new range with responses back from titles ranging from Metro and Daily Star to GoodToKnow, Woman and Tasting Britain.

We had limited interview time with Levi Roots so offered a number of titles the opportunity to interview him, with interest from print and broadcast titles including OK magazine and Times radio.

Other strategies included drafting and pitching a full product launch press release which we were able to pitch to mass media titles, and utilise as supporting information for the press samples.We also set up product competitions in key titles - a great way to increase brand awareness and a buzz around a product - and ran a very busy press office for the launch.

Results:

The live campaign ran for just three weeks, achieving 82 items of coverage and 141 backlinks. Out of those, 110 were follow links. 

The 141 backlinks, including 110 follow links, delivered strong SEO benefits, significantly improving MuscleFood.com’s organic search visibility in the competitive healthy eating and meal kit market. securing coverage across both lifestyle and mainstream titles demonstrated the success of the multi-audience approach.

Coverage highlights included print coverage in OK magazine, Woman, Metro, The Grocer, Daily Star.

Online coverage secured included: 

• Kent Live - no follow link, DR 72
• Nottinghamshire Live - no follow link, DR 77
• Belfast Live - no follow link, DR 74
• GoodToKnow - follow link, DR 74

Securing coverage across both lifestyle and mainstream titles demonstrated the success of the multi-audience approach taken with this campaign. 

Competitions landed on sites including Closer magazine, Absolute Radio, Heat World and Kiss FM.

Client feedback:

Ryan Akram, MuscleFood.com

“Motive’s unwavering commitment, unparalleled support, and innovative approach have been nothing short of a game-changer for our brand. The Motive team has consistently demonstrated a deep understanding of our industry and a passion for helping us reach new heights.”