To many viewers in Asia, chef Robert Rainford is ‘the barbeque guy’; popular with male and female viewers alike, his no-nonsense approach to grilling food has rapidly gained his show ‘License to Grill’ an avid fanbase. “Robert Rainford was first spotted on AFC and was carried exclusively on the channel. This success transformed to a sell out session for his gig when he was in Asia,” explains Maria Brown, the co-founder and managing director of Asian Food Channel. “With Robert Rainford in the region, we took him on a three-country tour of Singapore, Malaysia and Philippines. In Singapore, we held dinner events and workshops that were a sell out to the public. In Malaysia, Chef Rainford also had a special guest appearance on Astro Radio. Several Sky Cable subscribers in the Philippines were treated to a meet and greet session with him as well. The event took place in two high-traffic malls. The turnout ran, depending on the sessions, from just under 200 for the dinners to as many as 2,000 for the open air events in the malls.” Brown said that tickets sold out in three working days. “We opened up for more ticket sales thereafter and all were completely sold out in a week!” Asked for any ‘measurables’ to gauge the success of Chef Rainford’s tour, Brown says about 300 invited and paid guests showed up for events in Singapore, “Malaysia drew around 500 whereas Philippines attracted over 2,000 for the open air events.” In terms of sponsorship and advertising, Mini and The Fullerton Hotel were major sponsors in Singapore; BBQ King and Berjaya University were among the many that came on board in Kuala Lumpur; and San Remo sponsored the events in the Philippines. In Singapore, varied media interest was secured from both print and broadcast media. Broadsheet dailies including The Straits Times, The Business Times and long-lead print media such as Wine & Dine and Golf Digest Singapore conducted interviews with Robert Rainford when in town. In addition, a radio interview on one of Singapore’s talk shows also took place. Continues Brown, “In Malaysia, we did a pre-event, event and post-event publicity campaign whereby event listings were placed in various Klang Valley based magazines (KL Lifestyle, Time Out KL etc), major newspapers (New Straits Times, The Star, Malay Mail etc.) and also blogs. One-on-one interviews were conducted with major newspapers and magazines including FHM Malaysia, Flavours magazine, NST and The Expat. Press coverage and marketing efforts were successful with tickets being sold out weeks before the actual event.” “In Philippines, PR coverage was achieved in top daily broadsheets and online as well. Personal interviews by well circulated magazines like Yummy and F&B World were also conducted. In addition, exposure in various food blogs also helped to generate the overwhelming response and lead to a sell out gig.” AFC is also in the midst of producing a documentary on Chef Rainford’s experience in Asia to air on the channel.