Organizing a Blogger Party - The Qoola Case

I just had the opportunity to speak with Jesse Yu, co-founder of Qoola, a frozen yogurt shop with three locations in Vancouver, British Columbia. Qoola is unique in that they only use freshly-made ingredients, including the yogurt, which other competitors often whip up from powder. When I asked him how he responded to user-generated restaurant reviews on sites like Yelp and UrbanSpoon he told me of a blogger party he held a while back. Yu reached out to the top ten UrbanSpoon bloggers in the Vancouver area and invited them to sample Qoola's frozen yogurt, confident the product would make a positive impression. At the event, he explained to each person how Qoola's yogurt was made fresh while competitors cut corners with powder, how Qoola's fruit toppings weren't frozen and refrozen over and over, and how Qoola only used sustainable, compostable, recyclable disposables like cups, plates, and silverware. What Yu accomplished with a blogger party was powerful. He deliberately set the standard for the niche frozen yogurt market by saying frozen yogurt should be freshly prepared from raw ingredients. Now anytime a blogger reviews another frozen yogurt competitor they will always compare that business to Qoola. Is the frozen yogurt fresh or has it been made from powder? Are the toppings fresh or have they been frozen and refrozen? Does this business have a sustainable approach or do they just throw everything away? These are the questions they will ask. If you have a product or service capable of setting the bar, invite online influencers like bloggers to try it. Why not make an event out of it. The bloggers will benefit from being recognized as important digital players and you can benefit on the word-of-mouth they generate on sites like UrbanSpoon. It's a win-win.

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