Case Study: 15th Annual Downtown Little Rock Food Truck Festival

Written By Daidrian Hammond

Downtown Little Rock Food Truck Festival — Integrated Marketing Campaign

Client: Downtown Little Rock Partnership
Project: Integrated marketing and communications campaign for the 15th Annual Downtown Little Rock Food Truck Festival

Overview

For the 15th anniversary of the Downtown Food Truck Festival, Downtown Little Rock Partnership set out to build excitement around of the city’s largest annual events while increasing visibility for the local food trucks, small businesses, creators, performers, and partners that make the festival possible.

Under the campaign theme “15 Years of Flavor,” I developed and executed an integrated marketing and communications strategy spanning social media, creators partnerships, earned media, digital content, radio, outdoor advertising, and community partnerships.

The campaign positioned the festival as Little Rock’s Ultimate Try-It-All Taste Tour while building a coordinated storytelling ecosystem that extended well beyond Downtown Little Rock Partnership’s owned channels.

My Role

Campaign Strategy & Positioning:
Developed the campaign’s communications strategy and messaging, including the 15th anniversary positioning, “15 Years of Flavor,” and the “Try-It-All Taste Tour” concept.

Social Media Strategy:
Planned and managed festival content across Instagram and Facebook, developing a mix of promotional, informational, partner-driven, and real-time content designed to build awareness and help audiences plan their festival experience.

Creator Marketing:
Launched the festival’s first structured creator campaign, the Try-It-All Taste Tour, partnering with five local creators to spotlight participating businesses through food, fashion, lifestyle, and culturally specific storytelling.

Creator Strategy & Management:
Developed creator concepts, coordinated participating businesses and deliverables, managed campaign communications, and used collaborative publishing to connect creator audiences directly with Downtown Little Rock’s digital platforms.

Media Relations:
Coordinated press outreach and storytelling opportunities that resulted in television, print, digital, magazine, radio, and social coverage across regional media.

Integrated Media & Partnerships:
Helped coordinate a promotional mix spanning earned media, paid radio, outdoor advertising, digital promotion, tourism partners, sponsors, creators, participating businesses, and community accounts.

Content Development:
Produced and coordinated campaign messaging, social content, informational graphics, participating-business features, entertainment announcements, volunteer recruitment, event guides, and real-time festival communications.

Performance Analysis & Reporting:
Tracked campaign performance across platforms and developed a comprehensive post-event MarComms report evaluating social performance, creator content, media coverage, audience behavior, and opportunities for future campaigns.

Impact

  • Generated 210,500+ verified campaign content views across Instagram, Facebook, and festival Instagram Stories during the September campaign period.

  • Recorded more than 109,000 cumulative content-level reach.

  • Generated at least 3,300 reactions, likes, comments, shares, and saves.

  • Festival-related Instagram content generated 98,299 views, 556 shares, and 40 new followers.

  • Facebook content generated 100,921 views, with festival videos producing more than 123 hours of watch time.

  • Published 65 festival Instagram Story frames, generating more than 11,000 views.

  • Launched the festival’s first structured creator cohort, partnering with five local creators to spotlight participating food businesses.

  • Secured at least 17 documented television, print, digital, magazine, and social media placements, in addition to radio interviews, paid radio promotion, and outdoor advertising.

  • Earned coverage across outlets including KARK, THV11, KATV, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Little Rock Soirée, Arkansas Life, Inviting Arkansas, and The Local Palate.

  • Expanded campaign distribution through collaborative content with participating businesses, creators, media outlets, tourism partners, entertainers, sponsors, volunteers, and community accounts.

Why It Matters for Dai-Dreamers Media & Strategies

This project demonstrates the ability to:

  • Develop and execute a large-scale integrated marketing campaign from strategy through reporting

  • Build creator marketing programs that connect local businesses with new audiences

  • Coordinate paid, earned, owned, and partner-driven media into one cohesive campaign

  • Translate a major community event into a sustained digital storytelling strategy

  • Manage communications across creators, media partners, sponsors, businesses, and community stakeholders

  • Use audience data and campaign analytics to measure performance and inform future strategy

  • Build campaigns that generate visibility not only for an event, but for the businesses, people, and community surrounding it

Visual Proof

Campaign Results:
210,500+ verified social content views • 109,000+ cumulative content-level reach • 3,300+ engagements • 17+ documented media placements

Try-It-All Taste Tour Creator Cohort:

Selected Media Coverage:

Daidrian Hammond
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