'Scotland Food & Drink Legends' was one of the 22 projects across Scotland that was successful in the 2023/24 Regional Food Fund.
The project aimed to showcase eight local food and drink ‘legends’ that represent different highlights of the South of Scotland’s food and drink tourism experience.
We caught up with Sarah Macdonald at South of Scotland Destination Alliance, on how the Regional Food Fund has helped the project.
Tell us about your project
"The project specifically focused on food and drink businesses with a strong tourism component, for example, Traquair Brewery in the Scottish Borders and Kitchen Coos & Ewes in Dumfries & Galloway.
The ambition was that all collateral would contribute to the promotion and sales of regional product directly, by promoting participation in food and drink tourism experiences, and indirectly, by raising the profile of individual producers and of the South of Scotland as a food and drink tourism destination.
The project tells compelling stories of the people behind these businesses, leveraging human interest stories, evidencing passion and values and illustrating the high quality of the products through strong product and landscape photography.
The project was developed and designed around the ‘Scotland’s Larder’ series that ran for two years in The Scotsman, which was developed by the lead contractor for this project Cat Thomson, who is based in the South of Scotland. Scotland’s Larder had a tangible impact on the businesses featured, directly encouraging sales of produce."
Photo Credit: Phil Wilkinson
What did the project aim to achieve?
- "To showcase 8 local food and drink ‘legends’ that represent different highlights of the South of Scotland’s food and drink tourism experience.
- To create a repository of photography and narrative assets that can be used directly by members of the media to secure coverage, and / or used to inspire or secure coverage.
- To create a repository of marketing assets that can be used by the individual businesses, by regional food groups, by local authorities, by SSDA and VisitScotland, and by other organisations connected with the South of Scotland tourism and local food and drink sectors.
- To host a visit by the Guild of Food and Drink Writers to meet the producers as part of a regional food day tour.
- To raise the profile of the South of Scotland as a food and drink, and agritourism, destination."
Photo Credit: Phil Wilkinson
How have the objectives been achieved?
"We have held two food and drink Writers Guild Tours with a total of 15 attendees, receiving coverage from attendees' social media and blog accounts. An example can be found on Scottish Food Guide.
We sent out a press release to promote the initiative and received:
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- Coverage in The Scotsman, spotlighting The Ethical Dairy and Cocoa Black Café with mentions of all participating businesses
- Coverage in the Daily Record
We are now developing individual blog posts to appear on Scotland Starts Here. These will be published at short intervals over the next few months so we can extend the coverage and develop the story around food and drink in the region. These will be accompanied by a social media campaign.
We have already incorporated some of the images into our seasonal campaigns and you’ll see these images appearing on other pages of the website. Images have been added the SSDA Media Hub so that other businesses and organisations have opportunity to use them."
Photo Credit: Phil Wilkinson
The energy and collaboration this fund has enabled has created a fresh and enthusiastic approach to celebrating the food offering in the South of Scotland and encouraged us to revisit and promote it as one of the key components for the region, ensuring it is represented in all ongoing marketing activity.