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Read the full case study for more details and insights shared by SFA on why they selected Balluun and their partnership experience with Balluun.
Customer: Specialty Food Association | Launched: 2020
Brands: 700+ | Products: 15,000+
Customer Profile
The Specialty Food Association (SFA) is a membership-based trade association founded in 1952 and currently representing 3,500+ businesses. Its members are specialty food artisans, purveyors, importers and entrepreneurs, as well as distributors, retailers, and others involved in the specialty food trade. The Association is a source of industry information, educational events and in-person and online networking opportunities for its members.
Customer Profile
The Specialty Food Association (SFA) is a membership-based trade association founded in 1952 and currently representing 3,500+ businesses. Its members are specialty food artisans, purveyors, importers and entrepreneurs, as well as distributors, retailers, and others involved in the specialty food trade. The Association is a source of industry information, educational events and in-person and online networking opportunities for its members.
Business Problem
The SFA had operated an online product discovery marketplace for several years. However, when both of their 2020 Fancy Food Live Shows were cancelled, they needed an online marketplace platform that offered far more than what they had. Their strategy called for a technology that could deliver all the engagement, product and supplier discovery, lead generation and educational content that attendees and exhibitors found at the Fancy Food Shows, and could allow them to build an engaged digital community while driving new revenue streams.
The Balluun Solution
After an extensive review of possible solutions, SFA chose Balluun's FlashEX solution to power Specialty Food Live, due to its comprehensive features, highly configurable interface, quick time-to-market, and the ability to deliver against their value proposition. The solution enables SFA to create a virtual event experience, and provides a foundation to implement their digital strategy and drive future growth.
Business Problem
The SFA had operated an online product discovery marketplace for several years. However, when both of their 2020 Fancy Food Live Shows were cancelled, they needed an online marketplace platform that offered far more than what they had. Their strategy called for a technology that could deliver all the engagement, product and supplier discovery, lead generation and educational content that attendees and exhibitors found at the Fancy Food Shows, and could allow them to build an engaged digital community while driving new revenue streams.
The Balluun Solution
After an extensive review of possible solutions, SFA chose Balluun's FlashEX solution to power Specialty Food Live, due to its comprehensive features, highly configurable interface, quick time-to-market, and the ability to deliver against their value proposition. The solution enables SFA to create a virtual event experience, and provides a foundation to implement their digital strategy and drive future growth.
Results
The SFA team was trained on Balluun's content management system in just a couple of weeks. While the SFA Live features and content were building out, the marketing and sales efforts began. Within 6 weeks 350 food manufacturers and 15,000+ products were uploaded into SFA Live 2020!. The site was open for access to attendees, exhibitors and other registered participants during the scheduled period. It has facilitated:
- 55 education sessions (live and recorded)
- ~40,000 business connections
- ~70,000 leads to exhibitors
The success helped to boost SFA's commitment to taking their digital strategy year-round by licensing the Engage365™ solution. Rebranded as Fancy Food 24/7, the platform will continue to host virtual events concurrently with the physical Fancy Food shows while providing their audience with discovery and engagement opportunities year-round.
Results
The SFA team was trained on Balluun's content management system in just a couple of weeks. While the SFA Live features and content were building out, the marketing and sales efforts began. Within 6 weeks 350 food manufacturers and 15,000+ products were uploaded into SFA Live 2020!. The site was open for access to attendees, exhibitors and other registered participants during the scheduled period. It has facilitated:
- 55 education sessions (live and recorded)
- ~40,000 business connections
- ~70,000 leads to exhibitors
The success helped to boost SFA's commitment to taking their digital strategy year-round by licensing the Engage365™ solution. Rebranded as Fancy Food 24/7, the platform will continue to host virtual events concurrently with the physical Fancy Food shows while providing their audience with discovery and engagement opportunities year-round.