CHARLIE BIGHAM’S

Background

Charlie Bigham’s is a much-loved market leader who makes delicious pre-prepared meals in their kitchen, for consumers to cook in theirs.

Objective

Consumer: broaden awareness

Corporate: brand build

Insight

Our audience prefer real brands created by real, passionate, knowledgeable people.

Strategy

We have a ‘Charlie first’ strategy: too many people think he’s a character created in the marketing department of some huge conglomerate when actually he’s a real-life passionate cook who has grown the business to the point where it has more than 50 SKUs selling across a number of retailers and generating hundreds of millions in revenue.

Activity

How do we prove he’s real to consumer audiences: he writes his first cookbook!

Supper with Charlie Bigham which we launched in Autumn 2024 with a kitchen demonstration and book signing at Fortnum’s Food & Drink Studio with 150 guests and high-profile media exposure followed.

And how do we prove he’s real in a corporate world: a steady stream of interviews and speaker slots sharing his entrepreneurial journey and his passion for lovingly made dishes with fresh ingredients for people who love good food.

Beyond this we of course also run a busy press office, announcing new mains, sides and desserts each quarter and working as part of the brand’s fully integrated agency team.

Results

At launch, Charlie and his cookbook featured on the front cover of the Saturday Times, followed by an eight page feature in The Times Magazine and three articles online. We took Charlie on screen with a TV appearance on ITV’s Lorraine and This Morning’s live  cooking segment (on which he cooked his chicken with ginger, cumin, honey and almonds with Persian rice – taken from the book). 

We continue to see a steady flow of coverage continues with both recipes and interview pieces across the Daily Mail, You Magazine, Sunday Express, Mirror, Great British Food, Country Living, Sheerluxe Man, Women’s Health, OK!, Platinum, Waitrose and Sainsbury’s magazines as we move into seasonal recipe content and features.

Sunny Side Up says

“Charlie Bigham’s cooking is all about fuss-free, flavourful food for everyone and every occasion. Charlie doesn’t use anything you probably don’t have in your kitchen already which is why the cookbook has already been such a success amongst the media with over 100 recipes to choose from and an authentic cook enthusiastic to share his story and tips for creating great food at home.”

Zoe Ward-Waring, Managing Director.