The Miyoko’s Grilled Cheese Nation Tour

Originally, the Grilled Cheese Nation (Food Truck) Tour was going to be a national tour to promote Miyoko’s’ new vegan cheese launch in Whole Foods. However, the COVID-19 pandemic allowed us to work with Miyoko’s to use the truck, brand ambassadors, and product to bring delicious vegan grilled cheese to front-line workers fighting coronavirus and disadvantaged families and communities in the Bay Area. The repurposed efforts lasted for 12 weeks from early-April until late-June under the new name, The Grilled Cheese Compassion Tour.

The official cheese of OMGs

With COVID-19 just beginning to take over the nation in early-March when our tour was set to kick off in Anaheim at Natural Products Expo West, the tour was temporarily delayed while the world waited to see how the pandemic would unfold in the US. Once stay-at-home orders were enacted and hospitals began to be overloaded, Miyoko’s decided to repurpose the branded truck to serve health care workers in their community. We had to quickly pivot the tour’s details, from brand ambassadors to locations to schedule, to accomodate a new mission.

#SavorCompassion

The original goals of the program were increased sales, brand awareness, and hand-to-hand samples, which were still met through the modified tour in a modified way. Front-line workers and families in need still got to experience the Miyoko’s product through samples (just not hand-to-hand), and the truck raised brand awareness while driving from location to location around the Bay Area.

Miyoko’s also achieved positive PR for the brand, non-paid media coverage on social, and trial through samples in a slightly modified sampling method. Miyoko’s was thrilled to be able to have a vehicle (literally and figuratively) to quickly assist essential workers in a time of crisis. The new tour plan extended far past the originally scheduled two weeks because of how smoothly it was running. 

Newbridge was involved in many elements of the launch of the tour, including wrapping the Newbridge-owned food truck to brand specifications, hiring and training experienced brand ambassadors, and establishing relationships with hospitals and community organizations to route the tour across the region.

Phenomenally vegan, phenomenal community service

By serving their local community in a time of need, Miyoko’s distributed an average of 550 sandwiches per week and visited 46 hospitals, churches, community centers, and more during the tour. They also saw significant buzz on articles and social posts about the tour on VegNews and 11,000 likes on four posts on the @miyokoscreamery social media feed.