Just in time for the rush of consumers looking to stock their pantries with gourmet goodies, Whole Foods Market held a media event to showcase what’s in-store for the holiday season as well as give back to the community. A group of local food bloggers were invited to the store’s first annual holiday scavenger hunt where they donned their runners and competitive spirit for a race around the store to collect everything on their “shopping list.” (Think of the 90s TV game show “Supermarket Sweep” but without the bad hair.)

Not only did the winner get major bragging rights, Whole Foods donated a thousand dollars worth of food to the Vancouver Food Bank in the winning blogger’s name.

Armed with personalized shopping baskets and grocery lists, the participants scoured the aisles for everything from Lesley Stowe’s raincoast crisps to 365 Cookie Crumble Truffles. It’s not surprising the competition heated up on Twitter:

vanfoodster Chances to win maybe challenging, there are 11 competitors in #WFHolidayHunt @wholefoodsvan about 18 hours ago via Twitter for iPhone

followmefoodie About to get ready for intense competitive grocery store shopping w/Van’s fav foodies @Whole_Foods_Van #WFholidayhunt about 18 hours ago via txt

erin_ireland Is it safe to say that anyone wearing anything but runners to #wfholidayhunt is not a competitive threat? http://yfrog.com/7bno20j about 18 hours ago via Twitter for iPhone

Thanks to some VERY helpful Whole Foods Market team members, we had a winner in just less than 10 minutes!

goodlifevan Damn that @erin_ireland she reads the labels way better! Hats off! ) #wfholidayhunt @Whole_Foods_Van about 17 hours ago via ÜberTwitter

followmefoodie Aww boo! I came 4th in the grocery store hunt! @Whole_Foods_Van #WFholidayhunt about 17 hours ago via txt

As the winner of the holiday scavenger hunt, local food blogger and TV personality, Erin Ireland won the opportunity to donate a cart full of food to the Vancouver Food Bank in her name.

Following the hunt, media were treated to a sampling of prepared food items and gourmet treats presented by Whole Foods Market team members and everyone spent the afternoon mixing, mingling and proposing challenges for next year.

The #WFHolidayHunt hashtag trended in Vancouver on Twitter that day and the event resulted in numerous blog posts, radio and webisode mentions. Several media even referred to the holiday scavenger hunt as “one of the most entertaining media events they went to this year”. The High Road team is already being bribed for 2011 invites.

If the standing-room only warning didn’t tip you off on how hot the social media scene is in Vancouver, perhaps the 20 person waiting list did. Last week as part of Third Tuesday Vancouver, High Road was invited to take part in a talk about the social media scene, clearly something of interest here on the West side.

Third Tuesday Vancouver is a casual monthly meet-up where local marketing and communications professionals share their experiences using social media in society, organizations, business and government. At this month’s event, Steve Palmer of 76Design, Phil Evans of Crave FM and our own Carrie Baker discussed their experiences integrating social media in marketing and PR campaigns.

Not surprisingly, online social networking is strong in Vancouver and this was apparent as Phil Evans discussed how his radio station recently re-branded using only social media. Using Facebook to connect directly with their target audience of women ages 27 to 37, the social media approach allowed them to generate open and honest conversations with listeners on the process.

We also heard from Steve Palmer about how his agency helped create a cool social networking site for a public library that used the best elements of Facebook and Myspace to engage children aged six to 15. Designed to encourage reading through user-generated book reviews and opportunities to write alternative chapters, the site also engages younger children with fun games and drawing applications, creating a stronger connection with the library.

Carrie Baker talked about the importance of helping online communities connect to a company’s brand and to each other by incorporating offline opportunities for interaction. She discussed how blending social media activities with traditional PR strategies can amplify results.

All in all, there was a great showing of Vancouver’s social media minds, healthy conversation and of course, a few good laughs. Thanks to Third Tuesday for having us out to be a part of their event and for the opportunity to share ideas, questions and experiences.

Thank you to Tod Maffin for the organization of this event, and to CNW for the sponsorship!

– Angela St. Amour

High Road Vancouver’s Jo-Anne Stayner will discuss public relations strategy for product launches in the upcoming Go2Market roundtable by the British Columbia Technology Industry Association. The event is held on March 22 at 7:30 PM in the BCTIA boardroom (1188 W. Georgia, Suite 900). More information and registration on the BCTIA website.