Client: Amex Experiences
Our agency founded London Restaurant Festival in 2009. The event takes place throughout October across the city, with our first Summer Edition of the festival beginning in 2021 in addition to our flagship. It involves over 65 ticketed events and hundreds of festival menus across 450 restaurants with over 50,000 people participating.
We engaged Amex from the beginning and they are signed as headline partner until 2024. Amex has an exclusive five-day presale window during which a high percentage of all ticket inventory is sold: 85% of LRF event tickets are bought by Amex cardmembers.
Chef-Hosted events
Following the success of London Restaurant Festival for Amex, in 2016 we were asked to expand the programme of dining activity across the year, and across the UK, to provide monthly experiences for the Amex Experiences programme.
Previous chefs include Michel Roux Jr, Yotam Ottolenghi, Simon Rogan, Bill Granger, Nuno Mendes, Marcus Wareing, Nieves Barragan, Tom Kitchin, Angela Hartnett and Monica Galetti.
Client: Platinum
For Amex Platinum cardmembers, we created a super-premium gastro-tourism experience which allows guests to experience two European cities in one weekend and enjoy the very best gastronomy in those cities, staying in 5* hotels.
The first itineraries were three-day experiences in London and Paris where guests purchased all-inclusive tickets.
This included: stays at 5* Hyatt Hotels in London and Paris, Business Premier on Eurostar in a private carriage, Michelin-Starred Gourmet Odyssey in London, dinner in London with a celebrated chef, private tour of The Louvre, dinner prepared by Jerome Bocuse, exclusive tour of the Caves du Louvre wine cellars and lunch at Ducasse sur Seine – the legendary chef’s riverboat dining experience.
Dining series
We also host a number of events specifically for Platinum Cardmembers throughout the year. In recent years these have included experiences such as hosting Cardmembers at Wilderness Festival; a specially curated tasting menu at the Royal Academy of Arts hosted by José Pizarro, with tickets to Francis Bacon’s exhibition and an exclusive talk from the curator; hosting a Wellness Weekend in Bath; and an exclusive Chelsea Flower Show preview at The Newt in Somerset.
Our ‘Secrets of…’ series of all-inclusive weekends exploring hidden gastronomic gems in regions across the UK including Somerset, Kent and the Lake District is an ongoing success – with Secrets of Sussex taking place later this summer.
We also host a range of regional Gourmet Odysseys showcasing the country’s incredible dining scene in cities across the UK exclusively for Platinum Cardmembers. So far, we’ve showcased Manchester, Liverpool, Edinburgh, and Birmingham, with Leeds, Newcastle and Brighton all in the pipeline for the coming year.
As part of our wider event series, we always feature exclusive events for Platinum Cardmembers such as in our Chef’s Table series, London Restaurant Festival and London in Luxury.
Chef’s Table
Ultimate Wilderness Experience
Secrets of Somerset
Secrets of Kent
Wellness Weekend
Chelsea Flower Show preview at The Newt
Client: Centurion
For Centurion Members, we create a highly exclusive portfolio of events throughout the year that explore dining in combination with art, travel and culture.
Across the UK we have hosted private small-scale events featuring the best Michelin-starred chefs, including Sat Bains and Glynn Purnell, as well as exclusive dining experiences hosted in chef’s own homes including a dinner at Mark Hix’s house in Dorset and an exclusive weekend in Abergavenny staying with Matt Tebbutt. Our specially curated weekend-long experience combining test driving supercars at Silverstone with fine dining and a stay at Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons was so popular we had to create a second weekend later in the year to meet demand.
We also host a range of mini breaks abroad for food and wine lovers looking for a luxury travel experience. These have included trips to explore the vineyards of Provence and Champagne; a celebrity chef-hosted tour in the gastronomic capital of Spain, San Sebastian; and a trip to Paris to watch the Rugby World Cup Final, paired with the best fine dining, in October 2023.
We also curate exclusive events during existing event programmes and series such as London Restaurant Festival and Chef’s Table which they have exclusive access to. For example in London Restaurant Festival, we created a Tasting Menu series for Centurion Members showcasing premium ingredients such as white truffle, and a bespoke range of chef experiences called ‘In The Kitchen’.
Supercars, Silverstone and Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons
Chef-hosted Dining Events
Chef’s Table
London Restaurant Festival
London in Luxury
Two Days in Provence with Château Léoube
Royal Ascot
Bilbao and San Sebastián with chef José Pizarro
Client: Gold
With a love of food at its heart, Eat Life is an ongoing programme of events exclusively for Gold Cardmembers. These memorable experiences celebrate a real passion for dining and are designed to be shared with others.
Marketed directly by American Express, Gold cardmembers can buy tickets to a variety of experiences which include both an element of dining and culture.
Eat Life is now at the core of the Amex Gold benefits, hosting a full programme of monthly events throughout the year.
