Festival created with MillerWhite-assisted
integrated effort leads to downtown renaissance
Situation
Clabber Girl Corporation and its parent company, Hulman & Co., have been anchor industries in the community since 1848. A renovation of their signature building demonstrated a commitment to revitalize the downtown area. The building now houses the Clabber Girl Museum, Bake Shop, General Store and test kitchen, and has become a popular travel and event destination.
To increase traffic into the downtown area and raise awareness of its new facilities, Clabber Girl created the Brickyard Barbeque Fest, highlighting the city's many barbeque restaurants in a street-festival atmosphere. To tie in with the company's association with the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the festival is held on the Saturday before the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard NASCAR race. It is also a community fundraising event. Several factors presented challenges in planning and staging the first BBQ Fest. It was the first street festival of its kind, so restaurants had to be approached and convinced that it could be profitable. The area planned for the event, the parking lot across the street from the Clabber Girl facility and the adjacent blocks, was not known as a street fest venue and had to be not only upgraded, but also introduced to the public. And the entire event had to be pulled together in just 10 weeks.
After investing several thousand dollars to make the parking lot a suitable venue for outdoor events, Clabber Girl enlisted help to plan and coordinate the festival. While Downtown Terre Haute Inc. made initial arrangements for the vendor contract, water requirements and closing the two streets on festival day, MillerWhite Marketing worked with Clabber Girl to:
- Contact local restaurants about providing food for the festival
- Schedule entertainment
- Secure trash and toilet facilities, tents and tables
- Contact emergency and security personnel
- Recruit and schedule event staff
- Plan and implement public relations, advertising and promotion, which included sending notices for community calendars; issuing and following up on press releases; planning the media kick-off event; creating billboards and banner signage; arranging a live radio remote, cable and radio spots and appearances on local news talk shows; and designing flyers, posters and print ads
Attendance for the first Clabber Girl Brickyard BBQ Fest exceeded all expectations at more than 3,500 people. The event was a success for vendors, increased awareness of Clabber Girl's public facilities (with a boost in lunch business since the BBQ Fest), and earned about $2,500 for United Way. For the long term, it was this event that helped spur a downtown renaissance with the popularization of Clabber Girl's festival venue.
