Southern Junction Brand Development

Building a Texish barbecue brand from the smoker, up

 
 

Objective

Build a new barbecue brand from scratch, with no budget, in the middle of a global pandemic.

 

Challenges

  1. Brand new brand and company with no content repository utilize.

  2. Marketing team of one.

  3. No official budget available for support vendors or supplies.

Brand Highlights

Voice: Authentic, Approachable, “Not Cool”
It was important to Southern Junction’s owner, Ryan Fernandez, that we came off down-to-earth and approachable. As I developed the brand voice, I focused on making social posts sound like quotes from real conversations we had in the kitchen. I knew we had found our voice when people would come up to our pickup window and tell us they felt like the new crew already.

Social Channels: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Google My Business
Southern Junction opened in February 2020. While TikTok was starting to grow in popularity, at that time, the “tried and true” social channels for hospitality brands were Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. Instagram was our primary social channel for day-to-day promotion, Facebook was used to promote pre-orders and catering, and Twitter was treated as mostly a media communications platform because most of the local journalists used it heavily. As I got us into a good groove with the traditional social channels, by early summer 2020, I started using the Google My Business post functionality to improve our SEO and increase our number of reviews.

Content Strategy: Consistent, Experimental, Photo-Focused
As soon as we officially launched the brand we began posting on all our social channels 1-3 times per week. I also instituted an “always include a photo” rule to help boost our reach and grab attention as people scrolled by. To ensure this plan would work, I made a point to constantly take photos so we always had extra visuals available. By October 2020 we had 2,000 Instagram followers and were starting to see likes and comments come in from brands and media professionals outside of Western New York.

Brand Growth Highlights: National Media, International Brand Spotlight, and the Oscars of Hospitality

2021: Vice Munchies Video

Barely one year after opening, Vice’s food vertical, Munchies, contacted us about teaming up for a video. They were doing a series focused on little-known restaurants around the country and wanted to come to Buffalo to spotlight Southern Junction.

This was the first national media attention we had gotten as a brand, and came at a time when we were still debating whether or not to start actively pitching outlets for coverage. We eagerly agreed to the video, and during the shoot, I found out that the production team found us thanks to our Instagram presence.

 
 

2022: Ardbeg Custom Cocktail and Video

In late 2021, a UK-based production company reached out with a pitch no Texan could refuse. Ardbeg wanted to create a custom cocktail for us and feature us in their new video series, “Bizarre-BQ World Tour.”

We filmed the video in February 2022, with host DJ BBQ and crew arriving in Buffalo to very little snow — throwing off most of the B-roll plans. Despite the weather hiccups, the 14-hour shoot went smoothly, and the final result put Southern Junction on the radar of foodies around the world.

 
 

2024: James Beard Award Nomination

Ask any chef who has been in the industry for a while what it means to win a James Beard Award and they’ll tell you that even being nominated is an honor that many spend their entire careers working towards.

Historically, the James Beard Award nomination list is filled with chefs, restaurants, and bars located in “foodie” cities like NYC, Portland, and Washington D.C. It had been years since anyone based in Buffalo had received a nomination.

In 2024, that changed, and Buffalo’s hospitality reputation skyrocketed up a few notches thanks to two nominations — Ryan Fernandez in the “emerging chef” category, and Waxlight Bar a Vin (Southern Junction’s old neighbor on Chandler Street) in the “outstanding wine and other beverages” category.

While Ryan did not end up winning, he did make history as the first barbecue pitmaster to be nominated for a James Beard Award.