The Story of Tabletop Media Group
July 2020 marks four years in business under the Tabletop brand and much growth for our agency. What started out as a one-woman show in May 2012 morphed into a full-service agency specializing in food, beverage, agriculture and lifestyle. Did you know, we rebranded our company in 2016 from Gadabout Food to Tabletop Media Group?
The Backstory + Meet Our Founder
Kristen Baughman is the founder of Tabletop Media Group and native to the Carolinas. Her first full-time job after graduating from North Carolina State University was at the North Carolina Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services. During her time at the NCDA&CS she created a popular 43 Day Local Food Challenge Blog, which led to a food blogging opportunity with the Greater Raleigh Convention and Visitor's Bureau.
Her varied career after university led to a social media marketing and public relations opportunity with the Got To Be NC Competition Dining Series. This new role spurred a career shift to focus on media as it relates to the hospitality, food, agriculture and beverage industries. Kristen traveled around North Carolina meeting the state’s best chefs, amazing farmers, and talented distillers and brewers.
To highlight all of the wonderful industry people she was meeting, she continued food blogging and launched a social media consulting company, Gadabout Food in 2012. After blogging and working in Raleigh, North Carolina for three years, she spent two years in New York City consulting for Shutterstock, Taste Talks, Northside Festival, Swig and other clients.
Kristen began to miss her North Carolina community and decided to return to Raleigh, North Carolina in July 2016 to rebrand Gadabout Food to Tabletop Media Group.
Why Start a Boutique Agency?
The idea for Tabletop Media Group sparked in Kristen’s mind after taking on a few projects in New York City. She worked alongside talented colleagues and freelancers to develop websites, manage social media outlets and coordinate photography. Kristen thought, let’s house everything under “one roof” and package ourselves together. We’re stronger together, and clients are usually looking for more than just one type of service. So, Tabletop Media Group was born and started as a brand to house multiple freelancers and talents.
Because of Kristen’s intense passion for the food industry, Tabletop Media Group focused on restaurants and farmers in the beginning stages of the business. We set ourselves apart from other agencies because we understood food photography, how to set up a website for a restaurant, and more.
Favorite Projects
Tabletop Media Group has been fortunate enough to work alongside some incredible clients. A few of our favorite projects over the years are highlighted below!
STIR Raleigh’s Grand Opening
Our biggest event to date, our awesome team coordinated more than 3,000 people to come through the doors of STIR Raleigh. The restaurant is located in North Hills and opened in the summer of 2019. We helped their team to create quite the splash - allowing influencers and media outlets to dine in at the restaurant, as well as the general public to attend an exclusive launch party.
NC Sweet Potato Commission’s Sweet Potato Cocktail Book
Photo credit: Stacey Sprenz Photography
Who knew sweet potatoes could be turned into cocktails? We believe in our talented bartender contacts throughout the state and asked them to craft sweet potato cocktail recipes to be featured in a recipe book. We brought these cocktails to life through photography and graphic design, and the book was given out by the NC Sweet Potato Commission at food & beverage trade shows and at local bars. We also coordinated a cocktail recipe book launch party at Gallo Pelon in Raleigh that was well attended by influencers and media.
Coronato Pizza Branding and Pop-Ups
It’s always fun to turn a client’s dreams into reality - and we did just that with Chef Teddy Diggs of Coronato Pizza. His Carrboro, NC Roman-inspired pizza restaurant was in early construction phases and our team helped him to design a logo, menus, t-shirts and more. We also coordinated great social media posts as well as pizza pop-up events with other restaurants, farms and bars to get his new brand exposure. It was so amazing to see his brand come to life, and people even thought Coronato was OPEN before construction had really started! Talk about a pat on the back for Tabletop Media Group.
A Big Thank You!
We’ve been so blessed to have such wonderful clients and to help so many small businesses! Tabletop Media Group could not exist without our incredible team and the many amazing clients who believe in us every day. Thank you for believing in us!
