Maleny Food Co. may be well known for it’s fresh Maleny artisan gelato and sorbet, but it’s so much more than a gelato shop! Maleny Food Co. based in the heart of the Sunshine Coast Hinterland, Queensland is a producer, wholesaler, retailer and food tourism destination all rolled into one.
Fresh. Pure. Maleny
We have been on an amazing journey with Maleny Food Co. They came to us having just purchased Colin James, the highly respected and multi-award winning Maleny gelato factory and café with an inspiring vision – and we were up for the challenge!
The first stage was to rebrand the café and gelato production side of the business. The previous brand was well known and loved far and wide. However an opportunity existed to take the business to the next level, and a new name and brand was needed that could have national cut through as well as represent its home in a very special part of the country.
The transition of new owners, new name and new branding was a complex one as we needed to ensure we brought existing lovers of the product, café customers, new target markets, wholesalers, retailers, suppliers and the local community on the journey with us.
After a branding process involving many annotations, concepts and lots of gelato – Maleny Food Co. was born.
Logo Design
Great time and consideration was spent in designing every element of this logo. It had to tell the story of the Maleny Food Co. brand. It brings in the provenance of the brand with the nod to Maleny and its rolling hills, as well as the local dairy farms from which the milk is collected to make the gelato each day. Detail right down to the Bunya Pine positioned on the hills inside the logo help portray the brand story for this unique mark.
Website Development and Management
The website for Maleny food Co. needed to serve a number of purposes. It had to sell Maleny Food Co. and the township of Maleny as a tourist destination; it also needed to appeal to consumers and promote the products across scoop shops and retail; as well as appeal to wholesaler and food service market for their award winning gelato. It also needed to bring the brand story to life by showcasing Maleny and highlighting the provenance of the brand, the product and the ingredients. The website also needed to be fast, mobile responsive and efficient.
Social Media
As part of the launch of the new name and brand, we created and cultivated the brand’s social media accounts with a strong emphasis on the visual channels of Facebook and Instagram. One of the main social media strategies has been to showcase the Maleny Food Co. brand and its link to the Maleny township and hinterland region.
Photography and Creative Direction
Maleny Food Co. is an exciting client to work with on photography as we are able to traipse around the rolling hills of Maleny hinterland, frolic with the cows at the local dairy farm, and spend hours scooping gelato and sampling gourmet cheese. This initial photoshoot and those which have followed have set the tone of the brand’s aesthetics, as well as brought to life the richness of the region and product for those who are yet to experience it.
Graphic Design
The images we captured went on to be a large part of the in venue materials we designed for use by retail and scoop shops including banners, A-frame signs, postcards, and flyers. We also designed packaging, collateral, and posters for use inside the café.
Packaging
With so much time and consideration placed on the creation of the Maleny Food Co brand and story, it was essential their brand was recognised wherever it was found as well as being always ‘Instagramable’. We worked with the Maleny Food Co. team to design their iconic scoop shops cups, and retail packaging to increase brand awareness wherever they travelled.
Collateral
With a large retail and scoop shop customer base for the handmade gelato, Maleny Food Co. requires high quality collateral such as retailer welcome packs, nutritional resource guides, flyers, and info sheets to ensure the brands messaging and story were effectively communicated to all new and existing wholesale customers.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
From an initial SEO Audit, we discovered opportunities to optimise the site to meet the businesses ongoing objectives.Based on this audit, we conducted significant on-site search engine optimisation including SEO copywriting, URL, title, description and image optimisation.
In the three months since, we saw 44 of our tracked keywords increase in ranking including 26 non-branded keywords in the top 8 search results and 12 non-branded keywords in the top 3. Of those the biggest keyword movement saw rankings jump up 37 places.
Ultimately this has lead to an increase of 10.2% in website visitors overall and an increase of 17% in organic search traffic over three months.