Hill+Knowlton Strategies (WPP) · 2015–2021

Nonni's Foods

Fashion Week café, sponsorships & popups

Client: Nonni's Foods
Agency: Hill+Knowlton Strategies (WPP)
My Role: PR program lead

The Challenge

Put a heritage, Italian-inspired biscotti brand in front of millennial women — and the editors, influencers and tastemakers they follow — in moments that felt like culture, not a sales pitch.

What I Did

Led the New York Fashion Week PR and sampling program: a Nonni's café, co-branded with Corso Coffee, where press, editors and influencers stopped for espresso and biscotti between shows.
Built a steady calendar of activations at millennial, culture-focused events targeting millennial women, spanning fashion, wellness, fitness and food.
Secured supporting-sponsor presence at Cooking Light & Health's Fit Foodie Race Weekend, sampling THINaddictives to runners and their families at the finish-line festival, including the San Diego race.
Brokered the Corso Coffee pairing, a brand collaboration that gave the café a reason to exist beyond product sampling.
Built consumer tasting events and secured coverage in the outlets that mattered.

In the field

Activations, up close.

Nonni's café counter with a chalkboard menu wall, Corso Coffee branding and 'Real Ingredients, No Compromises' lettering — The Nonni's café at New York Fashion Week, co-branded with Corso Coffee.

A guest sampling biscotti and reading a card at the Nonni's café counter — Celebrity guests sampling biscotti and espresso between shows.

A guest in a navy dress speaking with the Nonni's café team while a photographer captures the visit — Celebrity sampling at the Nonni's café during New York Fashion Week.

Two guests posing together in front of the Nonni's café counter, one holding a coffee cup — Celebrity guests at the Nonni's café during New York Fashion Week.

Guests at the Nonni's café counter while a photographer shoots — Press and photographers at the café.

Nonni's booth with a brick backdrop, product displays and a 'Supporting Sponsor' sign — Supporting sponsor at Cooking Light & Health's Fit Foodie Race Weekend.

Runners with race medals sampling at the Nonni's tent by the harbor — Sampling to runners at Fit Foodie Race Weekend, San Diego.

Nonni's tasting table with biscotti, recipe cards and city lights behind it — An evening tasting event, one of many millennial-focused activations.

Guests in winter coats gathered around a Nonni’s sampling table stacked with biscotti boxes and purple-wrapped samples — Consumer sampling: guests stopping by the Nonni’s table to pick up biscotti.

Results

40.2M
impressions across 38+ top-tier outlets
2017 North American Excellence Award runner-up (F&B) and In2 SABRE Award finalist.

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