Gelato Festival World Masters 2022 - 2025
October 2022 saw the launch of the new four-year Gelato Festival World Masters competition, the worldwide qualifying rounds pitting gelato artisans against each other that will culminate in 2025. The goal is simple: to spread the culture of artisanal gelato around the world and to shine a spotlight on the artisans who work in their workshops every day to achieve excellence.
A key element of this project – which is divided into local and regional selections called Challenges – is the collaboration with Carpigiani‘s sales network, giving distributors and dealers the chance to meet new customers and build loyalty with those they already know. Other partners of the initiative are Gelato Festival and Sigep – Italian Exhibition Group.
The numbers of the first nine months of competition
Between October 2022 and May 2023 37 events were held, including one during Sigep 2023 for German gelato artisans.
Of these, 19 were organized in Italy and 18 in other 12 countries: Germany (3 events), United States (3), Hungary (2), Spain (2), Czech Republic (1), Belgium (1), Norway (1), , Canada (1), Greece (1), Bulgaria (1), Poland (1), Kuwait (1).
515 gelato artisans have participated, of which 271 were from Italy and 244 from abroad. Of these, 50% were new contacts, a significant figure that demonstrates the success of the competition over time as it continues to attract new members.
The gelato artisans rated the Challenge positively, giving it an overall score of 4 out of 5.
Over the nine-month period the Press Office published 52 press releases in four languages, with 110 mailings to journalists in 13 countries, for a total of more than 500 articles.
Interview – Mario Michelucci, GEBA (Chieti, Italia)
What was your strategy to promote the Challenge and attract participants?
We usually use social media to promote the event, but then we go around personally to register people.
Our main goal was to promote the value of artisanal gelato, to organize a pleasant social experience for the various gelato artisans and help them understand the power of the Carpigiani Group.
What effect did the event have on your business? Has the competition produced an increase in sales or inquiries from customers?
The effect was very positive and helped close some contracts. The demonstration by Palmiro Bruschi, lecturer at Carpigiani Gelato University, was also quite popular.
What advice would you give to someone who has never organized a Carpigiani Challenge and would like to do it for the first time?
Call us to do it for you – just kidding!
It’s important to listen to the market…feel the vibrations it gives off and figure out how to organize it. There’s no need to make it big, just organize it with passion and dedication.
What are your future plans for Gelato Festival World Masters events? Do you plan to repeat or expand it in any way?
Our dream is to do it in the square in Pescara, donating the proceeds to charity, but it takes a lot of work to do it right. We’d like to repeat it with the goal of paying even more attention to the judges, to attract more participants.
Interview – Mario Michelucci, GEBA (Chieti, Italia)
What was your strategy to promote the Challenge and attract participants?
We usually use social media to promote the event, but then we go around personally to register people.
Our main goal was to promote the value of artisanal gelato, to organize a pleasant social experience for the various gelato artisans and help them understand the power of the Carpigiani Group.
What effect did the event have on your business? Has the competition produced an increase in sales or inquiries from customers?
The effect was very positive and helped close some contracts. The demonstration by Palmiro Bruschi, lecturer at Carpigiani Gelato University, was also quite popular.
What advice would you give to someone who has never organized a Carpigiani Challenge and would like to do it for the first time?
Call us to do it for you – just kidding!
It’s important to listen to the market…feel the vibrations it gives off and figure out how to organize it. There’s no need to make it big, just organize it with passion and dedication.
What are your future plans for Gelato Festival World Masters events? Do you plan to repeat or expand it in any way?
Our dream is to do it in the square in Pescara, donating the proceeds to charity, but it takes a lot of work to do it right. We’d like to repeat it with the goal of paying even more attention to the judges, to attract more participants.
The Path to 2025
In September 2023 Carpigiani and Gelato Festival teams will restart the competitions at distributor and dealer locations with a calendar that already promises to be busy until the end of the year.
It is clear from what has been done so far that:
- The Challenges retain their value as a tool for engaging and reaching out to end customers.
- The gelato artisans have been pleased with the efforts made to improve the event and the communication initiatives put in place to make them famous.
- The technology demo offered by Carpigiani Gelato University instructors is a good time for making sales contacts.
Contact the Carpigiani team for more information: challenge@carpigiani.com
