The Cateys has always been the hot ticket when it comes to the hospitality world. So as the leading foodservice agency we were there in force to find out first-hand who would be walking away with one of the iconic and highly coveted Cateys ‘lady & shell’ statues. Now in its 32nd year, the Cateys celebrate the cream of the crop when it comes to the hospitality industry. With twenty one categories covering all facets of the industry the awards night itself is the culmination of months of judging and preparation.

This year was a corker with an amazing menu devised by Mark Sargeant and prepared by Nigel Boschetti and his team at the Grosvenor House Hotel. Following our appetiser and starter Jason Attherton took to the stage to make an announcement on behalf of industry charity Hospitality Action, stunning diners with their new hard hitting #ItCouldHappenToYou campaign featuring the likes of Heston Blumenthal, Tom Kerridge, Angela Hartnett, Jason Atherton and Ashley Palmer-Watts. The campaign drives home the message that when the worst happens (and it could happen to you!) Hospitality Action is there to pick-up the pieces, helping to support those in need in the hospitality industry. The call to action is a simple one, individuals can donate by texting Chef15 and either £5 or £10 to 70070*. As supporters of Hospitality Action we love this new campaign which builds on the previous one.

Following the HA announcement guests no doubt counted their blessings whilst enjoying the rest of their delicious meal, which was accompanied by wines sponsored by Matthew Clarke (although the delicious but rather substantial Crab Roll starter did make the rest of the meal a challenge for those in more snugly fitting evening wear – naming no names).

Then it was on to the business of the evening – the awards. Actor John Hannah of Four Weddings and a Funeral and Sliding Doors fame led the proceedings with his signature Scottish lilt. As ever, each category was hotly contested and the winners emotional. The awards culminated in the Special Award which went to Springboard’s Stephen Moss, the International Outstanding Achievement Award which went to Daniel Boulud, and finally the Lifetime Achievement Awards which went to the legend that is Nico Ladenis.

Then it was off to enjoy catching up with friends and contacts old and new at the bar and even to capture the evening for posterity in the mini photo-booth sponsored by our client Hotelympia (the evidence of which is to be found on our Jellybean twitter feed @JellybeanAgency). As ever, congratulations must go to the events team at The Caterer, the judges, the venue, and of course all the nominees and winners. It was truly a night to remember and we were honoured to be there. If you weren’t as lucky you can catch-up and see the full list of winners here, along with coverage on Twitter by searching #Cateys.

*(We often incorporate charity activity into client campaigns as well as carrying out fundraising ourselves for HA and Springboard, as well as a number of other charities we support. Funnily enough at the moment our client Wrapmaster is donating £5 to Hospitality Action on behalf of chef and caterers when they enter the #WrapChallenge, so if you’re working in a kitchen we would urge you to not only donate via the It Could Happen To You campaign text above, but also enter the Wrap Challenge – that way you can easily double your donation at a stroke – curtesy of Wrapmaster).

Jellybean Creative is a leading foodservice marketing and communications agency. We help top brands with foodservice pr, foodservice marketing, digital and design. If you feel we could help you with your marcomms, strategy, public relations, creative or digital then drop us a line today.

This sell-out B2B Marketing Summit was certainly a packed house. With marketers from both client and agency side gathered to hear from the best and the brightest of the B2B marketing world, The Brewery venue was buzzing. As the leading foodservice digital agency with a passion for great B2B (or should I say P2P) marketing we made sure we were there – as I am oft heard to say around the office ‘every day’s a school day & it’s a sad day when you learn nothing!’

The structure of the summit was themed around ‘Your Event. Your Agenda’ which meant that apart from the keynotes (top and tailing the day) there were five concurrent streams to choose from on social media, engagement, content, multichannel and insight. This meant in essence that each delegate could personalise their day and choose the content they felt most relevant to them. So it seems like B2B Marketing has applied some of the current thinking on how to engage by offering choice and tailored content – good to see!

So what did I glean from the day? Well, here are my top 10 take-outs from the sessions I attended…

1. Today’s business buyers do not contact suppliers directly until 57% of the purchase process is complete! So PR, social media, SEO, automated marketing, thought leadership and content marketing are all key to ensure you are part of that first 57% of the process.
2. There are 27 million pieces of content shared every day and your piece gets around 8 seconds of attention. So it has to be high impact!
3. You can deliver 4x as much ROI from content marketing than from ads! In fact only 1% of millennials would engage with a brand based on a compelling ad. However, of your content 10% will be driving 90% of your ROI, so work out what is working and do more of that. Equally make sure your content is designed to the audience rather than simply being what an executive asks for –‘behind every bad piece of content there is an executive who has asked for it’. For truly strong content follow these 3 principles: 1) stop promotion and create for real people, 2) be the best answer on the internet, 3) act like a human. You can even be funny!
4. Personas are key, but we really need to collect data and analyse who the real target audience is (not just who we think it is). That way we can focus  on the right channels with the right messaging to really engage.
5. Make sure your landing pages go EAST (a model used by David Cameron’s Insight team) i.e.
   EASY – Simple, clear and short, ideally use a default or autofill, add clear reassurance to address any possible misgivings, reduce any effort needed, ensure there is a logical path or break things down into steps and show what you get as a result of engaging.
   ATTRACTIVE – It must attract attention to get maximum impact (see point 2). Make it move (we love stuff that moves, so video, animation or tickertape is great), even set it to play automatically. Use numbers, the more specific the better (as we use a different part of the brain to read numbers so it helps arrest the reader). Be different in your market. Use the word GET! (we love to ‘get’ stuff and it really’gets’ our attention). Tempt people with where they will get to – ‘outcome modelling’. Give the impression they have a choice (if people feel they have chosen it they are far more engaged) and drive selection by what kind of person you are rather than what service you want e.g. I’m a café owner, publican etc.
   SOCIAL – “Speech marks grab our attention”. We want to know what people say, so use quotes and testimonials to add credibility, also use client logos to instil trust. Make sure your copy is empathetic, more ‘you’ less ‘us/we’ and avoid jargon at all costs. Be genuine, honest and true to your brand. Always be positive. Don’t frame a negative as this will give a negative association.
   TIMELY – Try to time your message to reach your audience when they are in the right mind set (via cookies, Google targeting etc.) Tell them how long it will take to do up front e.g. take 2 minutes to do this test to see if you need X etc.
   If all this has worked for Cameron it can certainly work for you!
6. CEO’s spend 1 hour per week with external suppliers and prioritise incumbent consultants and service providers over new suppliers, so getting face time with the top man or woman is challenging to say the least. So when you get there you want to make sure you have the right approach. C Suite (EO, CMO, CFO etc.) marketing requires you to build trust first and foremost and then show the value you can offer. Essentially you must show 3rd party endorsement to build credibility, using facts and bespoke insight that is respected and authentic, rather than blowing your own trumpet!  This approach used by top sales people is in stark contrast to the traditional approach to selling services, which focuses on the traditional ‘what we do, what the benefits are, this is the business case and this is why you should trust us’ – turning it on its head. A little altruism goes a long way too, people will remember who wanted to help when they were out of a role!
7. Headlines are the new banner ads and visuals are the new headlines – getting your headline right and ensuring it is optimised for SEO with popular search terms can do wonders for getting your messages out there and strong visual content like video and infographics will help engage when they are there.
8. If ‘content is king’, ‘distribution is King Kong’ – basically if you don’t get your content ‘out there’ it doesn’t matter how great it is as no one will see it! So understand your audience with personas and target them with a multichannel approach to ‘touch’ them and offer up the right content at the right time for them and if its good people will share it.
9. Harness the power of your people. Put together, your employee base will probably have a far wider social reach than your brand, so get them onside and co-create, interact and make the most of the resource you have.
10. Finally, the B2B buyer journey is simply a series of questions you have to answer. If you can be honest, engage with your audience on an emotional level and offer them things that will amuse, inform and interest them you’re going in the right direction.

To say the above scratches the surface is an understatement, but in this world of data overload I thought I’d keep it as brief as posible. Congratulations to Joel and the team at B2B Marketing on another great event. If you want to see more search #B2BSummit15 on Twitter.

Jellybean Creative is a leading foodservice digital agency. We help top brands with foodservice pr, foodservice marketing, digital and design. If you feel we could help you with your marcomms, strategy, public relations, creative or digital then drop us a line today.

As the leading foodservice agency we make a point of attending the ‘Marketing in Foodservice’ conference, which is now in its third year. M&C Allegra offered up a varied agenda for the day with speakers representing high street operator brands, traditional and social media channels and of course food brands, reflecting the diverse nature of the sector.

As ever there was a huge amount of content throughout the day but here are my top ten take-outs…

1. The Market – Allegra kicked-off the day with an overview of the market and the good news that branded restaurants are showing 5.6% growth.  Also that ‘wow’ foods look to be driving consumer engagement, which means operators need to embrace unconventional thinking to create cut-through in the market.
2. Emotional Marketing / Neuromarketing – Having been to a whole conference on emotional marketing which covered a lot of the neuroscience behind successful marketing strategies I was interested to hear that KFC has switched their entire marketing strategy to embrace this ‘new thinking’. Long gone are the days of product focused ads, as KFC now aim to create a positive emotional engagement with their audience. If you want to see what they’re getting at just watch this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yRtIbkCrac
3. Internal Engagement – Often the forgotten audience internal stakeholders are key to the success of any campaign. It was interesting to hear how Santa Maria approached its internal engagement with a ‘foodie’ programme and even more reassuring to hear that for KFC’s Marketing Director Meghan Farren, re-educating old school marketers to their new emotional marketing strategy was one of the biggest challenges she faced.
4. Twitter – We at Jellybean have long been advocates for Twitter and all it can do for brands in foodservice, running Twitter accounts for the majority of our clients as well as ourselves. So it was great to hear from Twitter and find out more about some of its services and features. The good news is that thanks to our digital and social team here there wasn’t anything we hadn’t looked into or tried (from lead gen cards to periscope we are all over it!) but if you’re interested in what Twitter can do for your business it is worth checking out their business page. (Or just give us a shout)
5. Data – The age of big data, marketing automation and now ‘engineering serendipity’ is here. With the technology moving towards a place where data from all channels will eventually be able to be brought together to target individuals on what some might see as a deeply creepy level. If you think remarketing (where ads stalk you across the internet) is a bit much then the thought of engineering serendipity to approach customers just at that crucial moment might be more than you can bear. It’s fair to say however that data is a hugely powerful tool and used in the right way offers foodservice marketers an invaluable resource which often goes untapped.
6. Innovation – Innovation is a term often bandied around by marketers and is usually associated with highly creative ideas and developments. However it seems that process and control blended with creativity is the way to really innovate, whilst ensuring your customer is at the heart of any innovation.
7. Doing Different – There are few brands that are as edgy as Brew Dog. Their passion for craft beer has helped build the sector in the UK and most of it has been done by breaking every rule possible. This crowdfunded brand simply does things differently, it does Punk PR, and its anti-establishment mind-set means it resonates with consumers unlike other sanitised and polished brands out there. Interestingly enough the Marketing Agency Association has coined the phrase ‘Do Different’ to drive agencies to challenge and be more punk – it looks like we could learn a thing or two from Brew Dog, even if our budgets don’t stretch to driving tanks down Camden High Street!
8. Technology – As we all live on our SmartPhones 24/7 technology can now get brands literally into the palm of our audience’s hand. Busaba Eathai has seen the results of embracing technology with their loyalty app that also offers customers a quick pay solution. It’s a strong example whereby applying a technology solution to a business challenge (like customers hating to wait to pay) can offer a relatively easy to implement answer to an age old complaint.
9. (In the real world) IRW vs. URL (online) – In this technological age the digital realm is often heralded as the way to communicate with 18-30 year olds but Captive Media take a slightly different view. They managed to demonstrate how although influential, digital media cannot achieve the same real life engagement and brand impact as IRW media. The kicker – well, we’re not talking any old IRW media, Captive Media is responsible for getting brands in front of their potential audience whilst ‘spending a penny’ (to put it delicately), offering interactive urinal screens. (What’s more with sensors the participants can ‘direct their flow’ to interact with the media.) Sadly as a girl I’ve not experienced this particular media but on the theme of ‘do different’ this definitely ticks the box.
10. Networking – As ever these events are great both for the official agenda of presentations and panel discussions, but often just as interesting is the company and opportunities to catch-up with contacts and discover new ones.

My final thought, well it’s a little off-topic but it has to be that Simon Stenning of M&C Allegra has something of the Hugh Bonneville about him – anyone else agree? Feel free to comment  @JellybeanAgency on Twitter and while you’re there you can catch-up on the tweets from the day by searching #MarketingInFoodservice.

Jellybean Creative is a leading foodservice marketing and foodservice design agency. We help top brands with foodservice pr, foodservice marketing, digital and design. If you feel we could help you with your marcomms, strategy, public relations, creative or digital then drop us a line today.

It is often said that there is a lack of real insight in the foodservice marketing compared to consumer and retail, but with the likes of Horizons and the often untapped resource that is wholesaler ‘sales out’ data, we work with our clients to effectively unearth those killer nuggets of insight that can help brands open up the foodservice opportunity. We have partnered with Horizons on a number of projects through the years, as well as incorporating its Key Club sessions into our staff training to ensure we keep our edge as the leading foodservice marketing agency. We strongly believe that only by really understanding the market landscape, influences and trends can you create effective campaigns which offer cut-through and deliver ROI for brands in the OOH arena. To that end we always make a point of attending the Horizons annual breakfast briefing to get the very latest insight on the market.

This time around the event was hosted by Dentons – the largest law firm in the world! But we weren’t surrounded by lawyers, instead anyone who’s anyone in the industry was present to get the inside track on what is happening and a glimpse into the year ahead from Peter and his team. As ever the session kicked-off with an introduction from Mike Southon and a state of the nation view on the economy from Peter Andrews of the Bank of England. Due to ‘Chatham House Rules’ I can’t divulge the details but as he took me back to the days of A level economics with a range of charts and graphs detailing the state of the economy one thing was clear (in contrast to the briefings of the past few years) things are looking up.

Then it was on to Peter and the Horizons team to take us through the foodservice market. Below is my executive summary of the presentation…

The Market Headlines – F&B sales in 2014 rose to £46.6bil (+3.8% nominal growth, +2.9% real growth). 2015 will continue to see growth as we return to 2008 levels (the previous peak) as Horizons believes (at constant prices) F&B sales will total £47.8bil up by £1.2bil in the coming year. Whilst long term the market is likely to hit £56.3bil in 2019 (+3.9% nominal CAGR).
Winners and Losers – Based on growth the top performing sectors include: pizza delivery, managed pub brands (e.g. Wetherspoons), pub restaurants (driving the restaurant sector), primary schools and coffee shops. Overall groups are performing better than independents and casual dining groups & fast casual (e.g. Pret) in particular are doing well. Lowest performing sectors are: staff catering, healthcare, police stations(?!), Chinese and oriental take-away, airline catering, fish & chip shops and cafes. Moving away from operators to the route to market, 2014 looked positive with growth across all temperatures and channels, with the strongest growth showing in fresh and contract distribution.
Vouchers – Gone are the days of blanket 2-4-1s. Now discounting is hard-wired into the menu engineering and is used tactically around occasions and opportunities to attract consumers in and drive sales in a far more sophisticated and strategic way.
Operator Margin – Good news! After the days of food inflation and consumer price inelasticity which put huge pressure on operator margins, we now see food prices lower and selling prices increasing, giving operators better margin and therefore money to invest in the future.
Growth Factors – Population growth, an increase in meals served in the profit sector, an increase in average spend per meal and inflation at +2.2%.
Eating Out – Overall, consumers are eating out more in 2015. With penetration growing, as well as average spend rising. 25-34 year olds have the highest eating out penetration.
Cuisines – Burgers remain the No.1 item on menus with US inspired, world cuisines (including Peruvian & Lebanese), health & wellbeing and premiumisation and indulgence all coming through strongly on menus from the Menurama insight.
Ones to Watch – Based on the fastest growing small brands (5-25 outlets) and growth of >20% since 2011, here are some of the names to watch out for: Fuel Juice Bars, Dunkin’ Donuts, Abokado, Tortilla Mexican Grill, Pieminster, Boost Juice Bars, Chozen Noodle, Decks, Five Guys, Farmhouse Inns, Wildwood, Brasserie Blanc, Coast to Coast and El Mexicana.
Trends – As far as concepts go, the strong trends include: healthy quick service / fast causal, Italian (all sorts), Mexican fast casual / casual dining, British casual dining, steakhouse casual dining and coffee shops.
Beyond London – Smaller brands are avoiding the prohibitive rents of the capital and opting for other top conurbations such as Manchester, Bristol, Glasgow and Leeds. Some are even actively focusing on market towns and secondary cities to drive growth.
The London Bubble – The eating out market in London is growing, out-performing (as usual) the rest of the country. This has been driven predominately by groups. Why the London bubble though? Well it has a lot to do with the demographic mix with a higher concentration of consumers in their twenties and thirties who tend to eat out the most.
The UK Leads the Way – It’s fair to say that London has one of the most dynamic, influential and vibrant eating out sectors, indeed over 50% of the top casual dining brands in Europe are UK based e.g. Nandos, Pizza Express, Frankie & Benny’s, Harvester and Hippopotamus. These alone account for half of the top ten casual dining brands in Europe, with Nandos topping the chart achieving F&B sales of over $700mil based on their latest year-end figures.
Risks for 2015 – Despite the more rosy outlook for the eating out market there are still some risks which could throw everything off-kilter, including: the economy (volatile oil prices, Eurozone etc.), political uncertainty (May’s election in the offing), international uncertainty (terrorism, Syria, Ukraine etc.), the British weather (and all its many extremes), the unexpected (e.g. ‘horsegate’) and even operators hitting the headroom ceiling, as growth opportunities are ‘maxed out’.
Crystal Ball – The foodservice market is never an easy one to predict, but looking ahead to the rest of 2015, Horizons believes (at constant prices) F&B sales will total £47.8bil, up by £1.2bil. QSRs, restaurants (including pub restaurants) and hotels will continue to grow, whist, staff catering will see a downturn and healthcare will remain static. Indeed education is the most promising area of the cost sector, showing growth which is mostly driven by the universal school meals initiative.
2015 in a Nutshell – Less uncertainty! Phew!

With such a comprehensive round-up on the market, once again congratulations must go to Horizons on a hugely informative event. Thanks also to Dentons for hosting and providing a stunning view and pretty impressive breakfast spread. Not to mention our facilitator Mike Southon and the panel discussion group from Dentons, Elior, Wafflemeister and of course Peter Backman himself. Catching-up with friends and contacts afterwards I know I wasn’t alone in thinking that the early start was well worth it – the early bird and all that! Now I’d better get off and put all this solid information into action for our clients!

To find out more visit http://www.hrzns.com/

Jellybean Creative is a leading foodservice marketing agency. We help top brands with foodservice pr, foodservice marketing, digital and design. If you feel we could help you with your marcomms, strategy, public relations, creative or digital then drop us a line today.

As the leading foodservice agency we get invited along to a fair few events during the year. It is fair to say that the world of foodservice is full of lavish events and gala awards, but in the blur of Park Lane venues and gourmet dinners there is one that stands out from the crowd. The FPA (Foodservice Packaging Association) Annual Awards breaks the unwritten rule that all foodservice black tie dos must be held in London, by heading off to the seaside and holding its night of the year at The Grand. In the classic opulence of this Brighton landmark the event also starts far earlier than most with afternoon tea and an exhibition of award entries for guests to peruse. Then from 6pm there are cocktails and mingling, so by the time dinner is served at 7.30pm the mood is, to say the least, ‘buoyant’.

Add to the mix a delicious meal from Alan White and his team at The Grand, a charity raffle and silent auction to raise money for Hospitality Action and Springboard, and of course, the awards themselves – you have a great night. But The FPA didn’t stop there. Oh no, this year as compere they had none other than Keith Chegwin – oft known as ‘Cheggers’! Fresh from the Big Brother house with tales of Katie Hopkins and a compere set straight out of panto, Cheggers put his all into the evening and even did his homework before the night, managing to comment on winners’ and sponsors’ websites and product ranges (on occasion informing them of things they didn’t even know!). After the fun and games, including some strictly dancing heads and tails and even a chance to win a boating experience for two (bring on the mini inflatable dingy) it was then onto the main even of the night – the awards!

I was honoured to be asked to judge the marketing award and awaited the announcement eagerly to see the consensus of the judges as the winner of the FPA Marketing Award was announced*. Myself and fellow judge Lorraine from Arena were even asked to stand up and received a somewhat embarrassing round of applause (all the time hoping that those who failed to win the marketing award didn’t ‘hunt us down’ at the bar and interrogate us as to why).

The awards culminated with the Member’s Award which is voted for (unsurprisingly) by the membership of FPA, to honour the person who has done the most to promote the foodservice packaging industry. As the description was read out it soon became clear that our friend Martin Kersh of the FPA was the winner – much deserved it was – congratulations Martin! But congratulations must also go to not only all the winners including, TriStar Packaging, Planglow*, The Smith Anderson Group, Duni, Vegware, Prêt a Manger, Euro Packing and Sybron UK, but also to the sponsors, 3663, BPI Recycled Products, Bunzl, Celebration Paper and Plastics, Wrap Film Systems (our new client), Coveris, SCA and SEDA. And finally congratulations to the team behind the FPA, including Martin, who as ever, managed to put on a fabulous event which lasted long into the wee small hours and was greatly enjoyed by all.

Jellybean Creative is a leading foodservice marketing agency. We help top brands with foodservice pr, foodservice marketing, digital and design. If you feel we could help you with your marcomms, strategy, public relations, creative or digital then drop us a line today.