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A little birdie told me…

September 30, 2012 //
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I think I am going to have to bite the bullet and get a Twitter account.

One of my current work projects involves a big rebrand and as a result we are considering the role of social media and how we need to use it to best promote the company. Sir Martin Sorrell recently said “Twitter is a PR medium, not an advertising medium” which got me thinking about the role it will play for us and also in the future. I think the lovely Mr. Sorrell may need to rethink his view over time.

Kellogs pop up Tweet Shop

This week saw the last few days of the Kellogs pop up Tweet Shop in Soho which is a real first and one that will have us all re-evaluating the role of Twitter in our social media campaigns. Promoting the new Special K cracker crisps, consumers were encouraged to tweet from a choice of three statements or make up one of their own and in exchange, they receive a box of their chosen flavour. Tweets are the new currency. This is a really clever move taking the power of social media and combining it with the ever growing strength of word of mouth.

In this age of Twitter, word of mouth (read tweet) is increasingly important. In fact, it has been said that 92% of consumers trust recommendations from people they know and that translates to up to 50% conversion.

It is the insight into the industry that I know will suck me in as soon as I have an account. I was looking up Tom Sellers to keep an eye on his latest venture and suddenly you get a glimpse at his choice of restaurants, suppliers, friends and food connections: Tom Kerridge, Nate Green, Adam Byatt, James Knappett and of course Chef Keller. The legend that is Thomas Keller has 202,151 followers. This compares to Gordon Ramsay who has 1,034,062 which only goes to show the power of TV. But both genius Thomas and dear old Gordon pale to insignificance compared to the media savvy, personable and very popular Jamie Oliver who wins hands down with 2,587,156 followers. Unbelievable.

For the food industry, the Twitter route has facilitated the growth of markets and pop up concepts, not to mention bums on seats with last minute availability making some of the best spots open to all. You only have to look at the entrepreneurs doing a great job in the industry to see how it is done. Pitt Cue Co continue to impress in this field, but others are equally strong: Mr. Jones tells me that The Ribman is doing a great job and so undoubtedly we will be eating ribs very soon. And if that’s anything to go by, then ribs will be closely followed by burgers, mussels, yum buns, doughnuts and lots more. Mr. J. is also talking about all the food markets, day and night, that we need to frequent and I am, as always a willing compatriot for that.

What is fascinating is how many people are following these guys and just how many tweets they clock up. The most committed is The Ribman who has clocked up over 25,000 tweets. He may have an unhealthy love of West Ham and a controversial taste in T-shirts but he also has a personality and a conversation that others want to hear. We follow the person as much as the food.

So, Mr. Sorrell. You may be the most powerful man in advertising, but maybe the power of Twitter will win out. Is this still only PR or do you as a leader in the advertising world need to think again?

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Categories Food, Marketing, Restaurants

Marketing Madness

August 25, 2012 //
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Sometimes I do have to wonder about the sanity of marketing.

Don’t get me wrong. I love the fact that I am a marketer and really do enjoy coming up with new and interesting communication and promotional ideas especially in this era of social media but I fear the pressure to come up with different ideas to capture the young media savvy market is pushing a few corporate teams into losing their marbles.

Take Heinz beans. They are expanding their range to include a 5 bean tin with more varieties of bean in their yummy sauce.  The new campaign includes the chance to have your name engraved on a bean…..really?!?! Is it just me or is that idea not just plain daft? Who wants a bean with their name engraved on it? even if it does come in a nice box. I am sure that their social media team thought this was a great idea when they were sitting in their studio brainstorming ways to build Facebook into the campaign but isn’t this just ideas gone mad?

In January this year, Kit Kat launched a Facebook competition in their “Choose a Chunky Champion” campaign to figure out which new flavour to add to their range and this really did hit the mark for that particular medium. Each flavour had its own personality created by a specific comedian and the whole campaign was well integrated and incentivised across all media. The result was over half a million responses for this cleverly created campaign which was really only glorified market research. And the winner was … peanut butter.

Greggs the Bakers kind of started it with last year’s Superstar Doughnuts Awards, creating an X Factor style campaign across You Tube, Twitter and Facebook. Once again, each flavour had its own personality and for me, this was a team who really understood social media and had some fun with it all. Digital specialists Steel came up with the campaign saying “it’s not advertising… it’s social entertainment” and the results speak for themselves. Not the fact that “Glam Rock Legend” Jaffa Cake won, but the commercial success that drove bottom line profit. Within the first 5 weeks of the campaign, they sold over 1.4 million doughnuts giving their standard jam doughnut a run for its money. That works out on average at 40,000 doughnuts a day or something like 3200 an hour! This campaign, along with some new store openings, were announced as the reason that Greggs posted such great sales results last October at a time when most other high street food companies were struggling to show any growth at all.

So it can be done, but only where the creative is fun, the concept connects with the zeitgeist, the product development is there and the product gets its own personality….and that doesn’t mean putting a name on a bean.

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Categories Marketing, The high street

The Great British Summer?

July 21, 2012 //
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Back in April I told you I bought Mr B. a cherry tree for Christmas and after the blossom party, we were looking forward to the fruits this Summer. It seemed like a great idea that we could support a Kent farm, take the family to pick the cherries and make a day of it as well as have a bucket load of juicy British fruit not only to feed us now, but also to make some wonderful Christmas presents by preserving, juicing or simply adding alcohol. But it seems that the weather has not been on our side.

Last year, my friends extolled the virtue of this wonderful present and were overwhelmed with their abundance of cherries but sadly this year, the story is going to be very different. First it was the unseasonably warm early year which meant that fruiting plants thought the Spring season had started in Feb, then it was the unusual frosts in April which seem to have really nipped things in the bud, literally. And more recently it is that notorious jet stream which has carried so much rain that the fruits, even if they do come, are soggy and splitting. So we are advised that it is going to be a paltry offering this weekend when we go  a picking and I will have to get my thinking cap on for Christmas again.

Marking out a new racetrack?

I am sure you are feeling like me that the rain has just taken its toll in many ways this year. In the last fortnight, work took me to the wonderful Silverstone over the Grand Prix which really was a challenge as you all know. I thought it would be a good call to film our promotional video on Saturday qualifiers but how wrong was I?? it was genuine madness getting round in the torrential rain and gloopy mud. Even getting on site seemed like a season of Challenge Anneka.

This weekend we were due to be at the CLA Game Fair catering for the 18,000 members who were due to partake in fun games throughout the weekend at the lovely Belvoir Castle. Sadly this was called off a week ago as we were in the midst of preparing our lorries to get over there for the set up. The fields and lawns simply could not safely facilitate the event. What a shame.

It seems like the CLA cancellation is not the only event to fall foul this year. Many July food, agricultural and music events which have previously caught the imagination have also been called off this Summer including the Great Yorkshire Show in my home town, Taste of Edinburgh, Jimmy Doherty’s Harvest Festival, Innocent’s Village Fete and also The Big Chill. Some are saying it is the Olympic effect as this Summer the focus will be one of sport but the weather has clearly played its part in the decision making as well. This is awful news for the industry and I truly hope that the longer term implications are not too drastic.

Ironically I am writing this bathed in sunshine flooding through my windows today, but it is too late for this year. What have you been missing because of the weather?

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Categories British, Food, Marketing

Macaron Mania

June 24, 2012 //
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Laduree are the masters of macarons

I have always been a fan of macarons and even in the face of tough competition from the cupcake world, I can honestly say I would rather indulge in a mouthful of macaron, especially if it is the salted caramel or liquorice flavour from Laduree.

So I jumped at the chance of joining my school teaching friends, Caroline & Andy, at a macaron making class this weekend on offer from Living Social. These online deals are a fascinating addition to new media marketing and I have been somewhat cynical about their value up until now.

Our voucher was for a morning class at On Cafe in Clapham, home of Loretta Liu a patisserie chef who has worked with a class line up of Michelin starred chefs and now sells her macaroons in Harvey Nicols and at the Southbank Real Food Festival. Loretta claims that teaching is her passion now, and set up the cookery school to share the secrets of perfect macaroon making.

I arrived just before the 10 am starting time to be told the class was delayed and I should have received an e mail to that effect, which clearly I didn’t. We waited for half an hour and the removal of some old refrigeration equipment before getting stuck in. Loretta herself really didn’t seem to be emanating the serene happy energy that I felt it would take to host this session. If her passion was for teaching she was hiding it well! She may not be a morning person but when you are fronting a session like this, you really do need to be on your game. It just all felt pretty negative: no taking photos of the demo, no questions during the demo, no specific answers, just guidelines for you to take home! And some very dirty aprons.

Generally I am an advocate of pushing the brand experience into this added value zone, but there were some lessons to be learnt here. It is imperative to think about who the customer is interacting with. Done well, you walk away with a great connection with the brand and a sense that you have had a special insight into the workings of the place, but the alternative will put you off for life.

I really must get a Kenwood mixer

So, back to the class. As with most bakery, there are some top tips to follow and once the demo started we were let into a few of the secrets. Who knew the egg white had to be 3 days old? or the art of knowing just when the meringue is at the right stage of whisking (3 minutes, peaks and very white whites)…oh! and don’t mix the ground almonds with the sugar. Add flavouring to the ganache or buttercream, not the macaron. All good stuff.

Loretta made it look so easy and in true Generation Game style, we were left to get on with our turns.

Piping perfect sizes is harder than it looks

It really did seem like we were open to some insight but that other secrets were not going to be revealed. We were shown how to pipe properly…after all the piping had been done! We were told that this method is not the one that chefs use. We were given a recipe with elements that we did not use that day as it might affect the success. This was all rather disconcerting.

Success!

Nevertheless, we did turn out pretty good first attempts and I am sure I will feel inclined to try again at my leisure. In fact, it would be great for the three of us to go into Caroline’s kitchen and try again. She is a wonderful baker in her own right running a cake making and catering business for many years and I reckon we could make good use of her facilities, having much more fun with the experimentation.

Now I have to figure out who to serve mine to and resist the temptation to eat them before the requisite 3-5 days in the fridge or 2 weeks in the freezer.

It’s a good job I am away for a few days.

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Categories Marketing
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