Home Plate of Nations

Plate of Nations

Goals:
Building a Destination District, One Plate at a Time.

Create identity and marketing plan at the inception of a signature dine-around event of the Martin Luther King Jr Business Association (MLKBA) from its inception in 2011.

Local venues offer global menus with meals to share, showcasing some of Seattle’s best cultural and ethnic cuisines. Held two weeks every spring at restaurants in the culturally rich Rainier Valley.

In addition to raising awareness about the district, driving traffic, and increasing sales in the restaurants, the program sought to assist business owners in creating marketing materials, and providing feedback from Plate of Nations attendees to help improve service and product mix.
Strategy:
Create an identity that reflects the multi-cultures involved in Plate of Nations by representing a “plate” with utensils used for eating foods in different cultures – including hands. Integrate color palette with the MLKBA host organization. We focused on the business owners themselves by telling their stories and stories about their cultures, as well as providing beautiful photography of both the owners and their stunning food.

We created a Plate of Nations “Passport” sales and social media promotion where, as attendees sampled the special meals at each venue and posted photos of their passports on social media, they qualified for various prizes including gift certificates to restaurants and swag. A full passport qualified participants for a drawing for a cooking class with a chef from a selected participating restaurant.

On the 5th anniversary of the event, we teamed up with the City of Seattle Waste Management to help businesses qualify as a “Seattle Green Business” by meeting a protocol of waste management and energy efficiency practices. By the time of the event, all participating businesses were qualified, which we promoted, helping to fight the stereotype that many ethnic restaurants are not environmentally conscious.
Deliverables:
  • Assist in development of the concept
  • Create event identity including logo image, color palette, fonts, and brand standards
  • Develop passport sales promotion
  • Produce point of sale materials
  • Website creation and management
  • Social media management
  • Business owner support through a suite of marketing materials
  • Monitor media and public relations
  • Data tracking and reporting
    • Results:
    Over the six years that we ran marketing for the event, sales for specials increased exponentially year over year, with an increase in participating businesses, media impressions (estimated at over 9 million), and attendees bringing in over $250,000 in additional revenue into the district. The success of this event was the instigation for it to grow from just a single business district to a thriving regional event that continues to grow today.
    "Maia and Daimian are a dynamic partnership offering everything from research and design skills to branding work as well as place making and event coordination. I had the pleasure to work with them for more than 5 years building a small annual program (Plate of Nations) into what is now a highly anticipated regional event. I can always count on them to produce an end-product that is both authentic and effective, continually keeping in mind the stated end goals. You can’t go wrong with this team! "
    – Sarah Valenta, Director of Community and Business Development, HomeSight WA

    Project Date

    2011 - 2017

    Project Type

    Economic Development

    Client

    MLKBA & Homesight

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