The Academy of Food and Wine Service

Michel Roux’s Service has all the right ingredients for success

TV, online, national and trade press all served up as part of the integrated PR campaign.

William Murray Communications developed an idea for an ‘Apprentice’ style reality TV show to drive people to ‘The Academy of Food and Wine Service’ website and create awareness about front-of-house careers.

After successfully pitching the idea to the BBC, more than a million people a week tuned in to watch Michel Roux’s Service. Over four weeks, trainees aged 17-24 were put through their paces as they tried to convince the master chef they deserved placements at top hotels and restaurants.

Our challenge

The brief was to create a stir online through social media. However, due to the strict publicity policy of the BBC we couldn’t mention The Academy of Food and Wine Service association with the series before the first of the eight part series had been broadcast.

But that didn’t stop us getting the word out. In just four weeks after the first programme aired, William Murray Communications generated 10,000 visits to the Academy website, 34,000 unique page views and 981 followers on Twitter (more than double the number of followers of BBC2 for the same period).

Success on a plate

Along with more than a million viewers each week and coverage in national and trade press, The Academy is now offering a professional front of house qualification and has seen the number of requests from people seeking more information about a career in front-of-house service increase.