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Top PR and Marketing PR Agencies in Canada

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Charlotte Leung

By Charlotte Leung,Contributor” on April 21, 2023

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Citizen Relations

Citizen Relations is a full-service Canadian PR agency that offers a range of services, including media relations, influencer engagement, content creation, and crisis management. With the mission to make every conversation count leading to action for a meaningful impact, Citizen Relations are leading storytellers in telling impactful stories that resonate with audiences. Citizen Relations’ food and beverage team offers a range of services from media relations, and influencer engagement to event management, and crisis management. With a strong focus on storytelling and content creation, both traditional and digital media are used to help their clients reach their target audience and build brand awareness.


Some of Citizen Relations’ food and beverage clients include Nestle, Molson Coors, Subway, and the Vancouver International Wine Festival. They have won numerous awards for their work, including the Canadian Public Relations Society (CPRS) ACE Awards, the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) Gold Quill Awards, and several Cannes Lions.

One of the successful food campaigns Citizen Relations create is Cheetle in Cheadle in October 2022 intending to drive awareness for Cheetos by making “Cheetle” a part of Canadian snackers’ vernacular as its official name. A 17-foot-tall monument built in Cheadle Alberta became a global phenomenon. The campaign is incredibly successful in ways that it received over 2.2 billion impressions and delivered $33,057,999 media value. 

 

Talk Shop Media

Talk Shop Media is another full-service PR agency in Canada based in Vancouver that works with a variety of clients, including food and beverage brands with services including media relations, influencer engagement, content creation and social media.

Talk Shop Media has a strong focus on storytelling and creating engaging content that connects with consumers to bring campaigns to life for different businesses across various sectors using a variety of media channels. They are successful in generating buzz and excitement around their clients with the use of traditional and digital media, influencers collaboration and more.

Some of Talk Shop Media’s food and beverage clients include Vancouver International Wine Festival, Save-On-Foods, and Fresh Prep. They have won numerous awards for their work, including the Canadian Public Relations Society (CPRS) ACE Awards and several Hermes Creative Awards.

From their award-winning work, Starbucks is one of their partners in which the campaign covered 300 pieces of media coverage, 125M impressions from Media Coverage and 25M impressions from social media postings. With the execution of media and online campaigns including several events and announcements, the campaign succeeded in dropping the product across Canada.

How Top PR Agencies In Canada Are Helping Small Food Businesses Gain Recognition And Stand Out In A Crowded Marketplace

As small food businesses need help with gaining recognition and standing out in a crowded marketplace, PR agencies can help them build their food products and promote them to a wider audience in increasing their visibility.

PR agencies can help craft compelling brand stories to set them apart from competitors to highlight the unique aspects of the brand, such as the founder’s backstory or the sourcing of ingredients, and uses this story to create a connection with customers. With the story content created, promotion can be done through social media and influencer marketing to showcase the food product appealingly. By leveraging social media, businesses can promote their products by connecting with customers to build engagement with followers.

Building relationships with influencers who align with brands’ values can promote products to a wider audience. Different event strategies can also be developed to connect customers and gain exposure and generate buzz.

Creating A Buzz Around New Products And Promoting Brand Awareness With Innovative Marketing Strategies For The Food And Beverage Industry Such As Ride Of Social Media And Other Digital Marketing Channels

In promoting a new product from small food businesses, there is extra work and effort. Capturing and interesting social media campaigns have to be developed to promote brand awareness and create buzz around new products including eye-catching visuals, engaging content and a strong call to action. Video marketing can be a way to engage and showcase products highlighting the uniqueness of the food or how healthy the food is. A branded hashtag can leverage user-generated content to encourage customers to share their experiences with the new products on social media to build a stronger social media presence.

PR agencies can help host events such as tastings and cooking classes to promote the new food product in allowing customers to interact with the business and its products in a fun and engaging way. Digital marketing is an effective way of reaching more audiences that could be done with social media advertising and search engine optimization to target local customers and drive traffic to food businesses’ websites and social media accounts.

Apart from social media advertising, PR agencies can step forward to local media outreach such as newspapers, radio stations, and online publications to promote food businesses and their products or pitch stories and provide product samples to different outlets.

How Top Food And Marketing PR Agencies In Canada Are Leveraging Social Media Influencers To Promote Food And Beverage Brands

Social media influencers are powerful forces in the market in promoting food and beverage brands in Canada to drive brand awareness and sales in innovative ways. Partnering with food bloggers and chefs with significant followings will help promote food and beverage brands. A step further could be creating influencer events for new food and beverage products introduction and content creation to showcase the unique features and benefits of the business and its products. These are examples of influencer campaigns to reach a broader audience base.

With shifting consumer attitudes towards health, sustainability, and transparency, how top PR agencies in Canada are adapting their strategies to meet the new challenges in the changing landscape of food and beverage

The changing landscape of food and beverage PR has a stronger focus on health, sustainability, and transparency nowadays. In the food industry, these new focuses include healthier and better ingredients with natural and organic ingredients, reduced sugar and fat content or functional ingredients that provide health benefits. Food businesses can offer more transparency on their sourcing practices and production processes.

Furthermore, there is more attention on sustainability practices in reducing food waste, using eco-friendly packaging and supporting sustainable farming practices alongside public education on sustainable food choices. Leveraging social media is a good way to engage with consumers to highlight healthy recipes, sustainable food choices, and transparency in food production. For instance, there could be posts like “Food Trends to Watch in 2023” to introduce sustainable products, innovative ingredients, and changing consumer preferences in the food industry.

Diversity and inclusivity are crucial elements in every industry these days even in the food and beverage business. In these top PR food agencies, diversity is incorporated from hiring practices, employee training, workplace policies, and client representation to community involvement for an equitable and inclusive industry.

Not only are PR agencies recruiting diverse candidates ensuring hiring practices are inclusive, but diversity and inclusion training is also provided to employees to understand and address issues of bias and discrimination. There are policies for an inclusive workplace and diverse client representation to address the needs and concerns of those communities. PR agencies can participate in community involvement by helping food businesses get involved in the local community by sponsoring events, participating in local festivals, and supporting local charities to showcase their services to the local community.

For agriculture in Canada especially, PR agencies can help small food businesses to provide tips on partnering with local farmers and producers, hosting community events, and building a loyal customer base.

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