Charley West BBQ Fest

The Charley West BBQ Fest is an annual event benefitting the Bob Burdette Center. The BBC provides a safe, enriching environment to Charleston kids through after-school and summer programs. 

Company Story

When federal budget cuts drastically reduced grant funding, the BBC board brainstormed ways to replace lost income. Board member David Mincer, a barbecuing fanatic, suggested a competition featuring both commercial and backyard BBQ enthusiasts, and the Charley West BBQ Fest was born. 

Fellow board member Jamie Summers-Brown of Bricks Without Straw had a key role in promoting the new event. Mincer said, “Jamie does website development and design, but still has a mind for marketing. . .it’s huge to have somebody with that (marketing, PR) knowledge to talk about it.” That first year, Jamie created event banners, helped design t-shirts and posters, and set up a Facebook page. 

Improving the Process

After a successful debut, board members discussed making the next Charley West BBQ Fest even better. Jamie recommended an exclusive festival website, apart from the BBC’s, and implemented it in 2017. People no longer have to search the BBC site to find festival information, a positive according to Loren Friend Farmer, executive director of the BBC. “(They are) able to easily distinguish what is going on with the event. If people aren’t sure about the number or the email address or where to contact us about issues, now they can just look on the website and get that information.” Farmer also prefers the new format to simply having a Facebook event page. “Facebook is a running feed--you can’t really highlight or keep things on the top, like the event’s sponsors. We are able to provide more information on the web page.”

Mincer and Farmer agree that a separate website enables better sponsor recognition. “We certainly want to give sponsors the benefit of sponsorship and advertising and the website does that,” Mincer stated. “We’ve got links to their websites and that works well.” Farmer added, “We’ve had some ask if they would be recognized. It’s an added benefit for our partners, who are contributing to the event, to know that they’ll get recognition through the website and that people are easily able to access that.”

Jamie also added a separate Facebook page for the BBQ Fest, and walked Farmer through her first Facebook ad. “We had at least 180 additional likes on the Charley West BBQ page. We’ve also had more traffic on the Facebook Bob Burdette page—people are being trafficked to that through the Charley West ad.”

Marketing Beyond the Internet

Bricks Without Straw did more than just promote the event online. Jamie’s staff helped Farmer distribute press releases to established media connections in Charleston. And as board members solicited sponsors for the BBQ Fest, they left Bob Burdette Center information behind. Farmer shared, “Jamie put together a press kit--basically has the information that’s on the website, but in print form. He designed folders we put that information into and then have a hard copy to take to potential contributors whenever we approach them. That’s been a huge plus.”

Mincer also appreciates all that Summers-Brown has done to promote the Charley West BBQ Fest, and ultimately the Bob Burdette Center. “Jamie is almost single-handedly trying to get our name out there and to let people know what the Bob Burdette Center does, let alone the BBQ Fest. The word needs to get out there and Jamie’s the one who has sort of taken charge of trying to get that done. He’s a huge help. I’m glad to have him for sure.”

Bricks Without Straw is a digital agency and design agency based in South Charleston, WV United States and Ota, Tokyo, Japan.

We offer a range of web design services including: web development, e-commerce services and email marketing. We also offer a range of graphic design services including logo design and exhibition stands.

We love working with clients of all sizes in a range of industry sectors, creating and implementing inspiring and hard working concepts and campaigns for business-business and business-consumer clients.

Valicia Leary

Bricks Without Straw has continued to exceed our expectations with their design work, support and attention to detail. We would highly recommend their services. They have a wonderful team and we enjoy our working relationship with them.

Carol Fulks

Bricks Without Straw has continued to exceed our expectations with their design work, support and attention to detail. We would highly recommend their services. They have a wonderful team and we enjoy our working relationship with them.

Patti Hamliton

Bricks Without Straw is bringing our association into the 21st Century! He brings us ideas and innovation for our web site and other tools of technology that help us enhance our image and our message.

Rebecca McPhail

Bricks Without Straw has continued to exceed our expectations with their design work, support and attention to detail. We would highly recommend their services. They have a wonderful team and we enjoy our working relationship with them.

Bill Raney

Jamie is one of the most committed and energetic professionals we have ever worked with over the years. He seems to work all the time with full 24-7 accessibility and immediate response. Bricks Without Straw has raised our collective confidence for maximizing opportunities in today’s world. We simply could not have done it without them.

Jan Vineyard

The demands and responsibilities to our members mandate that the online presence of our associations and our internet capabilities are reliable and seamless. Add creativity to that mix and one gets the complete package with Jamie Summers-Brown and his staff at Bricks without Straw.