Building brand awareness and executive visibility in a crowded marketplace

Motif FoodWorks is a food technology company focused on making plant-based foods that are nutritious and better tasting than options currently on the market. They’re rewriting the rules of food design by leveraging a deep bench of food scientists and experts, focusing on the important sensory experiences that drive consumer enjoyment. 

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Challenge

Since its founding in 2019 as a spinoff of Ginkgo Bioworks, Mission North has helped position Motif as a leader in the food technology space. As a new entrant in the crowded plant-based foods industry, establishing Motif’s credibility as an innovative and disruptive force has been our key focus. With many consumers citing taste and texture as barriers to integrating plant-based foods into their diets, Motif has set out to create ingredients that overcome those hurdles. After Motif secured $226 million is series B funding in June 2021, Mission North saw this milestone as an opportunity to influence consumer perception of the plant-based food category and drive traction with Motif’s CPG audience.

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Strategy

To achieve greater brand recognition, Mission North implemented a multi-faceted media strategy that focused on leveraging Motif leadership’s deep science and food industry pedigree to establish execs as key media resources and disruptors in the food technology industry. Highlighting messaging to emphasize differentiators and distill Motif’s value proposition for business and consumer audiences were at the core of raising brand awareness. We leveraged Motif’s ability to offer a unique POV and used the news cycle and heightened media interest in the plant-based industry to insert executive perspectives. On top of earned media strategy, we also employed a robust owned media program to showcase Motif’s partnerships and collaborations by using company news to create thought-provoking blog content. 

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Impact

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Through media outreach efforts and reporter relationship-building, Motif was mentioned or featured in 151 articles over the past year in key top-tier publications and food trades, with 34% either mentioning or focusing on the series B funding announcement. 

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Most notably, Motif was also featured in a CNN broadcast segment on the future of food and included in outlets like The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Forbes, Reuters, TechCrunch, Vox, Food Dive, The Spoon and Food Navigator. Mission North also secured speaking opportunities for Motif executives at major events including SXSW and SynBioBeta to help highlight Motif’s unique food technologies.