World Food Championships, The Ultimate Live Food Sport Event, Preps For Television

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Posted Dec 11, 2024

World Food Championships, The Ultimate Live Food Sport Event, Preps For Television

As featured on Forbes.com, written by Senior Contributor Marc Berman
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Breaking through the clutter.

The inherent goal, and the challenge, for any content provider and broadcaster – linear or digital – in today’s recent era of “Peak TV” is defined by these four words. But just how do you stand out in the crowd? How do you get those elusive viewers, in any demographic, to come back for more? And what, per se, is the “secret sauce” (pun intended) behind tapping into the current viewing appetite of the audience?

Flash to the category of food and, specifically, World Food Championships (WFC), the international cooking competition billed as the “world’s largest food sport competition.” And let’s begin with the universal appeal behind anything food-related on television.

“We are a competitive people - with a passion to win and take glory. Cooking competitions keep us going regardless of age, physical capabilities or previous accolades,” explained Mike Tankel, partner/optimist at the marketing and development firm To Be Continued. “Cooking is probably the most participatory sport out there. While football tops the ratings, most of us would be foolish to step back onto the turf thinking we can play. Cooking, in contrast, allows us to participate, building our own kitchen legacies and our competitive spirits.”

The Pinnacle of Food Sport

“Tell me a person who doesn't eat food. Surely there is more to it than that, but food, and serving food, is really kind of a language of love,” noted Mike McCloud, who as the founder of the World Food Championships is a marketing entrepreneur focused on making the sport of food a long-term, fun-filled, a profitable global legacy.

In 2012, McCloud partnered with Las Vegas venues and culinary personalities through his advertising agency MMA Creative to produce the inaugural World Food Championships, which each year showcases a plethora of cooks competing globally for food, fame, and fortune across 12 categories. After crowning the category winners, the champions then go on to compete at “The Final Table” for their chance to take home the World Food Championship Crown and a grand cash prize.

“We were successful at creating a lot of great programs - Great American Barbecue Tour, American Grill Master Tour, and so on. Then, as we put those events into play, we noticed the growth of the Food Network and how these barbecue teams were good at so much more than just barbecue. And we saw that burger battles and sandwich slams started popping up. Iron chef fights were starting to happen. Dessert-offs were beginning to take hold, and so much more,” he recalled. “In our weekly brainstorming session, one of us suggested to do a 'Super Bowl' for food because all these verticals are starting to happen.”

“From there, we decided there needed to be that crescendo moment, where you are crowned the world champion. We came up with a process that could allow you to judge categories versus categories. We tapped into a desire for what we considered was a massive American Idol type property for food and home cooks, professional chefs, and competition teams. And we realized there was a real opportunity here to bring this to television.”

Enter World Food Championships

At its inception, American Idol on Fox, then one decade old, was still a Top 10 staple in broadcast television. Mike Eaton, a producer for American Idol who helped bring the show to Fox and is now the Chief Executive Officer for World Food Championships, remembers the early origins of the general reality competition category.

“When American Idol hit the airwaves, no one had really dug deep into the reality world because everything prior to that was mostly scripted,” said Eaton. “American Idol was clean, it was family oriented, it had elements that everybody could kind of grasp onto and enjoy, and the voting system got you involved. You had a vested interest following the results, which is what we call kind of ‘setting the hook.’”

After an early agency background (working on business for Procter & Gamble, Heinz Pet Food, Chiquita, Curad, and Star-Kist) and on the client side with Reebok (running marketing for the Midwest Region’s apparel and footwear business), Eaton joined Fremantle Media, where he ran the North American division responsible for brand marketing, sponsorship, and consumer products.

“Not everyone listens to pop music, but everybody eats food. And I immediately thought this could be the American Idol for food. This isn't Top Chef. This isn't a kind of Michelin star type food. This is food that people cook at home, food that they know about, enjoy and can relate to,” he said. “There were no boundaries who this could appeal to. And there were built-in interactive and promotional opportunities.”

Eaton also cites the recent pandemic for changing the general public’s relationship with food and cooking.

“People were locked in their houses for a couple years with nothing to do and cooking was a big thing,” he said. “And the younger generation has now also been exposed to the joys and the challenges and the excitement and the fun of cooking.”

From a Live Competition to Television

“Hollywood knew about us,” remembered Mike McCloud. “Food Network, for example, would approach us and ask to shoot footage from WFC in the background. And now we are in development on a network deal with one of the big four to introduce World Food Championships as a weekly competition series in 2025. In addition, we have a deal with Walmart and Sam’s Club, where we send chefs into their stores to do product demos, and we are eying other interactive and marketing opportunities.”

Also on the WFC docket is a consumer products line based on winning recipes, licensing and merchandising programs, a talent management division, and an agricultural division.

“There are different commerce elements to WFC that I think could turn this into something more dynamic than even American Idol was,” said Eaton, who describes the competing participants as “one big family.” “The model is similar, only food specific. We plan on telling the backstories of the participants. And we want to make this a global property. We already have a territory partnership with the Middle East and North Africa and are having conversations elsewhere.”

Over 20 years have passed since American Idol debuted. It was a different time. Streaming was non-existent. And the ability to find the next big hit TV series was, perhaps, an easier proposition. But food, of course, is the universal language. It can connect people from different cultures and backgrounds, allowing them to share experiences. And, at a time when each of the broadcast networks remain in search of that “next big hit,” World Food Championships is the key ingredient (pun intended) to break out of the clutter.

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World Food Championships, The Ultimate Live Food Sport Event, Preps For Television

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