USA Pears Pop-Up at FEAST Portland 2014 a winning concept

The National Agri-Marketing Association (NAMA) awarded USA Pears and its agency Harvest PR & Marketing, Inc., first place honors in the customer event category for its USA Pears Pop-Up Restaurant, staged at the 2014 FEAST Portland event, the Northwest’s flagship food festival. The Best of NAMA Awards recipients, announced last week during the 2015 NAMA annual convention in Kansas City, Missouri, honors excellence in agricultural communications. USA Pears’ entry was just one of three entries in the entire competition to be nominated for Best in Show in the PR category.

“Educating consumers and media about fresh pear varieties, usage and handling is always our goal,” said Kathy Stephenson, marketing communications director for USA Pears. “It was wonderful working with talented chefs and seeing this creative engagement recognized on a national level.”

The USA Pears Pop-Up concept was inspired by Portland’s pop-up and street-food scene, in which chefs create temporary restaurants featuring limited-time menus that celebrate fresh, locally grown ingredients. The two-day tasting activation at FEAST Portland allowed USA Pears to interact with more than 2,000 attendees, engage with thousands of people through social channels and secure coverage in local and national culinary press.

The USA Pears Pop-Up concept also won NAMA’s West Coast Region 1 Best of Show in the Public Relations category in December 2014. In 2013, USA Pears earned honors for its Tattoo PEARlor consumer event activation.

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