Launching a movement against food waste through Strategic PR and Influencer Marketing
CONTEXT
Too Good To Go is a global social impact company on a mission to inspire and empower everyone to fight food waste. Through its app, the company connects consumers with restaurants, cafés, supermarkets and other food businesses, allowing them to purchase surplus food at reduced prices and contribute to a more sustainable food system.
In 2019, The Square was challenged to support the launch of Too Good To Go in Portugal, introducing an innovative concept to the market and building awareness around both the application and its wider environmental mission.
The launch strategy combined public relations, national media relations, an activation event and influencer marketing, creating multiple opportunities to introduce the brand, explain how the app works and encourage Portuguese consumers to become part of the movement against food waste.
CHALLENGE
The challenge was to successfully introduce Too Good To Go to Portuguese consumers, generating awareness, credibility and engagement around a new application while communicating a broader message about sustainability and responsible consumption.
Beyond promoting the app itself, the strategy needed to make food waste a relevant and accessible topic, demonstrating how simple everyday actions could contribute to positive environmental change.
The Square developed an integrated communications approach combining proactive media relations with an event designed to introduce the brand and its mission to relevant stakeholders, journalists and content creators.
Media outreach focused on presenting Too Good To Go as an innovative solution to a widespread environmental challenge, creating opportunities for coverage across national news, lifestyle, consumer and sustainability media. The objective was to generate visibility for the launch while positioning the brand within wider conversations about food waste, conscious consumption and the circular economy.
In parallel, The Square developed a targeted influencer marketing strategy, establishing partnerships with carefully selected mid-tier, macro and celebrity influencers whose audiences could help amplify the brand’s message.
Through authentic and accessible content, these collaborations aimed to explain the app’s value proposition, demonstrate how consumers could participate in the movement and encourage new users to discover Too Good To Go.
By combining the credibility of earned media, the engagement potential of influencers and the visibility generated by the launch event, the strategy sought to build momentum around the brand’s arrival in Portugal.
IMPACT
The integrated launch campaign helped introduce Too Good To Go to the Portuguese market, generating widespread editorial visibility and amplifying its mission to reduce food waste.
The launch received coverage across leading Portuguese news, business, lifestyle and consumer publications, including Observador, Diário de Notícias, NiT, Time Out Lisboa and Marketeer. The media relations strategy also created opportunities for spokesperson positioning, with Link to Leaders publishing an interview with Madalena Rugeroni, then responsible for Too Good To Go in Portugal, exploring the company’s mission, business model and ambitions for the Portuguese market.
Media interest extended beyond the initial launch, with ECO reporting that the app had already helped save 1.100 meals from going to waste and attracted more than 70 partners in Portugal within its first two weeks.
This breadth of coverage helped communicate Too Good To Go’s value proposition to different audiences, positioning the application not only as an innovative consumer solution but also as a practical way to contribute to a more sustainable food system.
The influencer marketing campaigns delivered particularly strong results in approximately three months, generating around 1.24 million in reach and 6.12 million impressions, alongside approximately 22.000 likes, 600 comments and nearly 600 post saves.
The involvement of mid-tier, macro and celebrity influencers helped translate Too Good To Go’s mission into relatable, everyday experiences, making the app more accessible to Portuguese consumers and extending its message beyond traditional media audiences.
Together, the launch event, earned media coverage and influencer partnerships created a coordinated communications effort that connected brand awareness with audience engagement and a clear social purpose.
By combining strategic media relations, experiential activation and influencer marketing, The Square supported Too Good To Go’s launch in Portugal, helping establish awareness of the brand and its mission while demonstrating the potential of integrated communications to connect innovation, sustainability and consumer engagement.
