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The Challenge
When Franciscan, a Napa Valley-based brand, wanted to try something new within their brand activations, they went online to find partner agencies. The search for an agency with product sampling expertise led them to A Little Bird. “We’re always looking for new agencies that we could be partnering with,” said Rachel Rogers, Senior Associate Brand Manager, E & J Gallo Winery. “A Little Bird brought a ton of creativity, especially at the beginning, figuring out what we were going to do.” The engagement began with activation trials at The Heritage Fire Festival in 2023. The highly-respected gastronomy event travels the country inviting guests to try local fare prepared by critically acclaimed chefs from that area. Since the goal was to drive sampling among a target audience of average consumers who might not go for a premium wine, pairing the brands’ varietals with Heritage Fire Festival’s traditional fare made sense. “We are consistently talking about how well Franciscan pairs with barbecue and with a lot of these approachable summer dishes and cuisine,” Rogers said. “This activation really brings that to life in such an authentic way.”
Taking the sample tour nationwide
Having tested out A Little Bird’s creative ideas and product sampling execution at the festival, Franciscan committed to the full 2024 Heritage Fire tour.
“With Franciscan, our reason to believe in the brand is that we’re a really approachable, ultra-premium wine,” Rogers said. Continuing with Heritage Fire was a great way to put that on display.
As one of the country’s bigger food and wine festivals, the 2024 tour offered 15 American cities access to high-end bites cooked live, using locally-sourced ingredients by high-quality chefs. It’s an intimate event where guests can taste and vote on the food they’re served.
While the food in each location is tailored to regional taste buds, Franciscan wanted a brand activation strategy that was consistent across events. Not only was this approach cost-effective and simplified logistics, but “when you were seeing photos of Heritage Fire activations, you knew instantly that it was us.”
Working on a tight timeline, A Little Bird took the brand brief and recommended several different activation ideas. Once Fransiscan narrowed down the options, A Little Bird’s team ran trials to develop the best approach.
Once the partners had decided what they wanted the activation to look like, the agency handled the production of the activation kits, the logistics of getting them where they needed to be, and staffing the events with Franciscan brand ambassadors.
“It’s been such a huge value-add that once we really landed on the right look and feel, we were able to be hands off,” Rogers said. “We can feel really confident that A Little Bird is making sure that every event is a success for us.”
What We Did
Tailoring the experience to taste
As the tour wrapped up for 2024, Rogers was confident A Little Bird had “really helped Franciscan plus-up the engagement.”
Consider all the touchpoints:
- Visitors were greeted with a white or red varietal as soon as they entered the festival
- Brand ambassadors handed out samples from branded shelving saying the name of the Franciscan varietal they were offering
- Guests were given Franciscan tote bags to help them have their hands free for tasting plates
- Franciscan’s product sampling booth was located midway through the festival route to enable people to enjoy a second taste or try a different variation of the juicy, fruit-forward wine
- A selfie station at the tasting booth with props (e.g., an oversized branded wine bottle) and a Franciscan brand background provided prompts for user-generated content for social media
- Influencer Jordan Anidino joined the tour in two places to pour Fransciscan at the sample booth and pose in the photo booth
- His presence at the Napa and Miami stops generated press coverage
While there was consistency across markets, A Little Bird tweaked elements to suit each event. For instance, when the heat was climbing at the Napa Valley event, they added Franciscan-branded fans.
The engagement went from a simple booth to a rich brand experience complete with welcome cocktails, branded giveaways, a sampling booth, and social media photo booth. All of the activity drove up sampling numbers. “It’s a huge win for the brand,” Rogers said. “Overall, we wanted to have a sampling rate of around 90%, and we've achieved that.”
The partnership was seamless too, Rogers said. “The working relationship has been exceptional, and we feel very lucky to have found A Little Bird,” she said pointing to the “the communication, the creativity, the constantly checking in on progress."
For 2025, she said, “if we do any other events, there is definitely no other agency that we would call. It’s been such a great experience.”
Rogers highly recommends A Little Bird. “With A Little Bird we feel like we’re working with people who are equally invested in our brands as we are and they make the process fun.”
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