The 1st Ever Wild Alaska Fish Taco Recipe Contest

An online video to promote the use of wild, sustainable Alaska seafood.

Concept: The Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute (ASMI), an industry organization, created a cross-promotion with the Border Grill, a major restaurant in LA with celebrity chefs, to encourage cooking with wild Alaska seafood, which is guaranteed to maintain the sustainability of Alaska’s fisheries (Alaska has written sustainable fishing practices into its state constitution.).

Execution: On behalf of LA agency, Schiedermayer & Assoc, Iliani partnered with Director, Rocky Botts, from story development through production and editorial. Because the target was Gen Y, not foodies, we used inexpensive Flash animation to create a youthful, mythic backstory that grabbed Gen Y attention, followed by fun, quick edits of multiple format video – FlipCam, GoProCam, HDhandycam, and HDcam.  We established a visual anchor in two geographic locations (Alaska and the Border Grill Taco truck in LA), and offered food appeal, while maintaining a documentary feel with a food demo – no small feat.

Distribution: The video appeared on its own microsite created for the contest, as well as the ASMI website and YouTube.

Success: Key metrics that were used for success included views and number of recipes submitted.  ASMI considered it one of the best promotions they had ever done.  They expected to receive a couple hundred entries and they received close to 400.  The winner got to drive around on the Border Grill taco truck on Earth Day serving her winning fish taco recipe and generating more PR for sustainable Alaska Seafood.  We shot so much great content, that ASMI is considering cutting shorter video pieces and creating an on-going Fish Taco web site.

This project was completed by Iliani prior to founding TrimTab Media.