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23rd April 2015

Beans take a Break

Foodservice Public Relations - Beans Take a Break Image Last week fellow bean Jess and I decided to take a well deserved break to Grayshott Health Spa. Having browsed through numerous spa options online, we finally made up our minds and booked this sanctuary for three days…and what a delight it was!

After a mere one hour drive, we arrived at this haven in the Surrey countryside. Having never been away in England before it was a pleasant surprise not having to wake up at 4am to catch a plane! Luckily it was time for lunch when we arrived and we wasted no time getting stuck into the extensive buffet. The food was delicious, varied and all very healthy, although we couldn’t resist a glass of wine (we were on holiday after all!).

We managed to sunbathe the rest of the day, enjoying the unseasonably hot English weather and the beautiful grounds peppered with Spring flowers and shrubs until it was time for our exhilarating evening salt scrub before dinner. The treatment left us feeling revitalised and cleansed ready for our 3 course extravaganza of a duck starter, a wholemeal penne pasta in a sundried tomato sauce and a warm fruit crumble to end. Although the portions were small, we certainly left feeling full!

The following day, we decided to explore the local area, Grayshott is a beautiful town and make the most of the facilities in the spa and even had time for a spot of croquet in the evening…well making up our own version as we’d never played!
The dinner that evening, again was delectable and consisted of: quinoa with beetroot & prunes to start, aubergine melanzane for main (my favourite) and a raspberry parfait with a nut crumble.

On our last morning, we relished our final pampering session – a full body massage (couldn’t resist!). It was incredible. But, being the foodies we are we decided that we needed to eat something substantial to sustain us on the journey home (it was an hour after all) and so took a detour to the local pub, The Fox and Pelican. This was a real find and we must have left there a stone heavier than on arrival! The temptation of a burger and fries was definitely too much after eating like an athlete the previous two days.

We both left with a different outlook and better understanding of the foods we eat and a determination to think more about a healthy balance, I even purchased a book called Gut Gastronomy which was developed by Grayshott Spa, combining a health regime and recipe book, I can highly recommend it!

Jellybean Creative is a leading foodservice public relations 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.

Guest Blogger

23rd April 2015

Cocoa Adventures in Ghana

“There is nothing better than a friend, unless it is a friend with chocolate.” Charles Dickens

I’m not alone in being a chocoholic – the worldwide consumption is predicted to hit 8.5 million tonnes in 2020* – but how many of us actually know how the sweet treat is produced?

As part of Callebaut’s For The Love of Chocolate campaign, two chefs won the trip-of-a-lifetime to visit cocoa plantations in Ghana, learning about the origins of chocolate, along with Lisa Jenkins from The Caterer. And I was lucky enough to be invited along with them!
Stepping off the plane we were hit with the vibrancy and colourfulness of Ghana, but also the heat! Although not the climate we in the UK are used to, it certainly works for cocoa – in fact, 70% of the world’s total number of cocoa beans originate in West Africa, with Ghana second only to the Ivory Coast in terms of crop numbers.

We spent the week travelling around the cocoa growing regions, visiting large plantations and small farms, discovering how the trees’ small white flowers grow to pods containing an average of 40 seeds/beans. As the pods don’t ripen at the same time, the trees must be constantly monitored before harvesting with machetes and then fermenting for around six days, often by covering with banana leaves – the smell is powerful! The final work of the plantation is to dry the beans for ten days before they are sold to purchasing agents and the licensed buying company.

Once away from the plantation the beans are taken through various quality control inspections before shipment. At this point we were struck by just how rigorous a process this is – each single bag of beans will be checked at least three times, labelled and sealed to ensure quality and traceability. The government strives to only export high-quality cocoa so the checks are done by hand, with the final tests evaluating samples of 100 beans per bag. All being well, these will then be shipped off around the world to continue the bean-to-bar journey.

Aside from cocoa, Ghana has so much to offer and history to share – we visited Kakum National Park for a walk above the rainforest canopy, as well as Elmina Slave Castle where we heard the horrific stories of slaves being held before they were sent to Europe.

It was also touching to visit the schools that Barry Callebaut Ghana support by building sanitary systems – only around 5% of schools in Ghana have these facilities – accommodation for teachers, I.T suites and libraries.

Working for a leading integrated foodservice agency, we’re often enjoying the finished product so to be able to travel to Ghana and learn where it all began was truly a privilege and a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

To see some of my pictures and videos from the trip, check out @lflew and @Jellybeanagency on Twitter.

*http://www.statista.com/statistics/238849/global-chocolate-consumption/

Guest Blogger

22nd April 2015

Google's Latest Mobile Friendly Update

Yesterday saw Google roll out the latest change – its mobile friendly update. In a nutshell they’re boosting the ranking of mobile friendly web pages when searched for on mobile devices.

Read the full article on the Google Webmaster Tools Blog here.

Now, when you view search results on your mobile device you may find that results are appended with a ‘Mobile Friendly’ snippet, marking them out as having been spidered by Google, meeting their criteria for ‘Mobile Friendly’ pages, and being awarded that snippet. The snippet is what will boost your rankings on mobile devices – sites that don’t meet that criteria will see themselves drop down the rankings in favour of mobile friendly pages and sites.

This update:

Affects only search rankings on mobile devices
Affects search results in all languages globally
Applies to individual pages, not entire websites

Google qualifies this news further by saying that:

“While the mobilefriendly change is important, we still use a variety of signals to rank search results. The intent of the search query is still a very strong signal – so even if a page with high quality content is not mobilefriendly, it could still rank high if it has great content for the query.”

This is good news for larger corporations who may be less nimble than SME’s in being able to redesign their websites to be mobile friendly. In these cases a dedication to SEO and the production of quality inbound links may still help to keep your content ranking well where your pages are not mobile optimised.

To check if your site is mobilefriendly, you can examine individual pages with the MobileFriendly Test or check the status of your entire site through the Mobile Usability report in Webmaster Tools. If your site’s pages aren’t mobilefriendly, there may be a significant decrease in mobile traffic from Google Search. But have no fear, once your site becomes mobilefriendly, Google will automatically re-process (i.e. crawl and index) your pages.

You can also expedite the process by using Fetch as Google with Submit to Index, and then your pages can be treated as mobilefriendly in ranking.

Google has done a nice job of addressing many of the most popular queries regarding this latest roll-out on its blog which you can read here – suffice to say that in some cases there might be instances where you already have a mobile friendly website, but unless the code is tweaked a little to work with Googlebot, it may still be seen by Googlebot as non-mobile friendly. Often this is a quick fix though, so no need to panic.

If you need any help or advice in converting your existing site to be mobile friendly then drop us a line and we can advise as to how best to achieve this.

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.

Andy Wickes

22nd April 2015

Digital Trends for 2015

The first of no doubt many reports on the predicted digital trends for 2015 is out. Econsultancy, in collaboration with Adobe have produced their Quarterly Digital briefing report as a result of interviewing over 6300 people, both client and agency side.

The findings make interesting reading, and we at Jellybean thought we’d bring you the top line take outs of what is predicted to be key areas of focus for the coming months.

The stand out area in most of the surveys taken was CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE.

This was seen as the most exciting opportunity in 2015 by the majority, with 22% of the vote. Using digital tools across a multi-channel space, delivering an impeccable customer experience was seen as being a focus both by suppliers / agencies and clients.

Customer experience, and its successful implementation can take many forms in digital marketing. In a simple, almost literal sense it can take the form of ‘customer service’ which can be radically improved with the advent of enterprise level social media tools which can take customer service into the social sphere. Equally it can take the form of providing digital support channels such as ticketing, live chat and forums. But equally good UX design and good usability studies are paramount to ensure that your websites are providing a good user experience in the first instance and that visitors are finding the information they require quickly and, potentially, not needing to reach out to get questions answered.

Next in line is CONTENT MARKETING.

With 15% of the vote, and still very much in the ascendancy, content marketing is seen as the second most critical area of interest. A dedication to continually developing useful material and disseminating across the various digital channels is holding its place in the top two spots from 2014.

In third place, we find ourselves coming across that big buzz word from 2014 again. DATA. Only this time it’s not BIG DATA, it’s DATA DRIVEN MARKETING.

With such a vast amount of marketing intelligence available to us via analytics, reporting, social and the like, DATA DRIVEN MARKETING marks a focus on taking this intelligence and making sure that it informs all areas of the marketing, ensuring that key learnings are acted upon and that communication is tailored wherever possible to the needs and tastes of the recipient. This is seen as being a marked step away from the tendency among some to take a ‘fire hose’ approach to their digital marketing. A ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach where we send the same message to all recipients. Data driven marketing makes us accept that we would no more likely speak to all of our customers the same way in person than we would market to them the same way. We accept they are all unique people, run unique businesses, buy differently from us and have different pressures on them depending on their business objectives – thus we market to them differently if we want to maximise the efficiency of that marketing. Data gives us those insights and the truly successful marketer interprets that data into actionable results.

In other key areas, STRATEGY AND CULTURE are both defined as areas that need attention, in so much as it is crucial that a business’ culture is dedicated, educated and committed to digital in order for the benefits to really shine through. Often it can be a seismic shift within more traditional businesses to get buy in from all departments into a digital way of thinking, and to harness all departments to become involved, but without this holistic approach you will only ever reap some of the benefits and not all.

The importance of technology, data and skills should not be under-estimated, but the right direction from the top of the business and a conducive business environment are fundamental to success.

A well thought-out approach is becoming even more important in a world where mobile devices and even wearable technology mean that the digital and physical worlds are no longer separate. Another highlight of the report is the emergence of targeting and personalisation (30%) as the highest digital-related priority area, narrowly ahead of content optimisation (29%) which has also climbed up the pecking order. The technology has long been available for marketers to target optimised content at website prospects and customers across the right mix of channels in a way which is timely and highly relevant to their implicit and explicit needs.

In the context of the innovation adoption curve, 2014 was the year when the early majority of marketers joined the early adopters in embracing areas such as personalisation and content optimisation. This year may well be the year when the vast majority start to prioritise these areas as well.

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.

Andy Wickes

16th April 2015

Time for (Unsung) Heroes

Foodservice PR Agency - Cost Sector Catering Awards 2015 In the plump file named ‘things that foodservice does well’ – you’ll find, among myriad other examples, evidence of an industry like no other when it comes to honouring unsung heroes, be they young, up-and-coming chefs, charity workers, mentors or otherwise.

Last Thursday evening the tradition continued in some style with the annual Cost Sector Catering Awards – a chance to meet, eat, drink and marvel at some of the fine work done by in-house or contract caterers working in healthcare, schools, government departments, meals on wheels and welfare, prison catering, police, fire and MoD, as well as on-board travel catering.

The ceremony, organised by our friends at publishing house Dewberry Redpoint and held at the Hilton London Metropole, was packed to the rafters with the great and good of the industry, including a delegation of Jellybeans (actual collective noun) keen to mark the biggest night in the cost sector calendar.

With pre-dinner emceeing duties overseen by Dewberry Redpoint’s Andrew Archer, comedian Paul Sinha took the stage, following some fantastic food, to gee the room into an appreciative awards frenzy.
Headline moments came with Age UK chairman Dianne Jeffrey CBE, who has led both the Malnutrition Task Force and the Hospital Food Standards Panel in recent years, who was honoured with the Public Sector Lifetime Achievement Award (sponsored by our good friends at Hobart UK) while Geoffrey Harrison, the chairman and founder of Harrison Catering, received the equivalent Contract Catering gong.

All in all a fantastic night in which we were privileged to share. A night of unsung heroes. Well done to Dewberry Redpoint on another rather marvellous bunfight.

Follow this link for a full list of winners and a video from the night, click here.

Jellybean Creative is a leading foodservice pr 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.

Nick Clancy

15th April 2015

Jellybean Serves up Charity April Fool

A seven day ‘pop-up’ restaurant in East London, serving ‘pimped-up, Victorian-formula gruel’ was the recent subject of a charity April Fools’ Day prank by creative agency, Jellybean.

Borrowing heavily from the current trend for themed pop-up restaurants in the news, ‘Gruel Dudes’ and its fictional creator, Denton Fisk, took in elements of social media, digital and PR to fool readers, with £50 donated to industry charity, Hospitality Action, for every time a media outlet ran with the story.

In the end, two outlets – The Caterer and the Publican’s Morning Advertiser – printed the story in their ‘best of’ rundowns, with Jellybean placed in a top five alongside efforts from big names including Greene King, Domino’s, Costa and The Fat Duck.

Jellybean Managing Director, Fiona Rickard, commented: “Getting involved with April Fools’ Day is not just fun, it also provides a fantastic showcase for our capacity to compel and create. Tapping into the trend for leftfield ‘pop-ups’ seemed like fair game from our end, and we’re delighted it was met in the same spirit as intended, with many of our journalist friends loving the premise and the way in which it was delivered. Introducing a charity element seemed the right thing to do and we’ll continue to support Hospitality Action whenever we can.”

For the ruse, a faux twitter account was established and populated in the lead up to the day, alongside a stylish landing page and standalone press release – the overriding conceit of which was to entice diners to a disused factory space in London’s Hackney Wick to feast on gruel with expensive ‘add-on’ toppings including chia seeds, kale shavings, quinoa, local honey and foraged berries.

The twitter site can be viewed at: www.twitter.com/coolgruel

The full press release can be found here.

Jellybean is a diverse collection of minds and talents from across the industry. The RAR (Recommended Agency Register) and MAA (Marketing Agencies Association) accredited agency was recently shortlisted for both B2B Marketing and Communications Agency of the Year as well as the 2014 B2B Awards and offers unrivalled services in integrated marketing, PR, consultancy, insight, digital, creative and social media. Those looking to find out more about how Jellybean can help your brand for real can call Susan Bolam on: 01372 227950.

Jellybean Creative is a leading food and drink pr 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.

Nick Clancy

15th April 2015

‘Culinary Pirate’ to Launch London’s First-ever Gruel Pop-up, ‘Gruel Dudes’

Social Media Foodservice Agency - Gruel Dudes A seven day ‘pop-up’ restaurant serving pimped-up, Victorian-formula gruel is to open at the very beginning of April at a disused factory space in Hackney, East London.

Gruel Dudes is the brainchild of an experiential collective of so-called ‘culinary pirates’, headed by newcomer Denton Fisk, and will feature a menu of basic gruel, made using a mix of hot water, oats and millet sourced from nearby Dalston, ‘pimped up’ with a variety of toppings including chia seeds, kale shavings, quinoa, local honey and foraged berries.

Individual bowls will start at £2.99, with toppings priced between £1 and £2.50.

Diners will also be able to choose from a small range of ethical coffee and tea, alongside an extensive flight of paired craft beer and wine, handpicked by Fisk himself.

On the new venture, Fisk opined: “Now feels like the right time to reimagine gruel for the 21st century. We’ve remembered how to brew our own beer again, we remembered that a beard can be a personal statement and not just a mark of laziness, but we forgot about gruel. It’s lucky that I remembered that we’d forgotten about it, otherwise this would never have happened.”

The 110 square metre factory space, just off Tredegar Road in trendy Hackney Wick, will be open from 9am-7pm for seven days from 1st to 7th April. The strictly-no-bookings site has capacity for 45 diners, including a bar area, and will include a vintage clothing store, tattooist, flea market and a resident DJ.

Fisk concluded: “We’re on a mission to ‘make gruel cool’ and after this, it surely will be. If it proves a success, then who knows, we could roll it out far and wide to places like Stoke Newington and Dalston and maybe next time make it 14 days. I really want to do something interesting with acorns, so who knows, the possibilities are endless!”

Tweet Denton Fisk at: @coolgruel

Jellybean Creative is a leading social media foodservice 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.

Nick Clancy

14th April 2015

Landing Pages

More than ever, marketers are turning to the benefits of landing pages as a way to deliver real inbound results in their marketing campaigns.

But what exactly are landing pages, and how can you add them into your marketing mix?

Good questions.

Landing pages are usually single webpages hosted on the internet that are designed as landing pages for a specific push campaign, be it an e-marketing campaign, social campaign, or direct mail campaign. These landing pages, very often have data capture forms embedded in them and are designed to ‘convert’ or ‘qualify’ the visitor in the eyes of the business owner, expressing their interest in the product or service.

So far, so straightforward. So what is all the fuss about?

Well, in time-honoured fashion, here are the bullet-points.

1 EFFECTIVE. It’s been proven, across a great many markets that your conversion rate for a campaign is significantly improved if the user is taken through to a dedicated landing page that matches both the design of the campaign, but also the intention of the campaign. So rather than design a unique look and feel for an email and then take users through to a generic contact page on your website, match the look and feel of the email across the landing page.

2 QUICK. Typically the production time for an engaging landing page is far quicker than if you had to produce something within a corporate website.

3 FLEXIBLE. Prototyping stand-alone landing pages allows you design freedom as you are not tethered to the corporate website’s stylesheets and templates. Starting from scratch, or from a set of ready-made themes allows you to exercise creative freedom.

4 SALES ORIENTATED. Rather than focus on open rates, opportunities to see or click through rates, you are focusing your efforts on converting or qualifying recipients to receive follow-up information.

5. LOWER CUSTOMER ACQUISITION COSTS. Each improvement you make to your landing pages lowers your customer acquisition costs.

6. MEASURABLE. Both via Google Analytics, form submissions and form success rate you can easily measure the success of your landing pages.

Hopefully that goes some way to highlighting why landing pages are taking the marketing world by storm.

Get in touch and start to see the benefits stack up for your business.

Jellybean Creative is a leading food and drink pr 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.

Andy Wickes

14th April 2015

Head over heels for The Dam!

Amsterdam is one of the greatest small cities in the world. This is how the Amsterdam tourist board describes it and I have to agree. Having visited for the first time this month, I have totally fallen in love. From the beautiful architecture, to the winding canals, to the uber friendly people, to the feel-good cycling, to the delicious food, it truly is a city that welcomes you and makes you feel at home almost instantly.

Having planned a three day break it was always going to be a busy couple of days, but within the first afternoon we had more or less explored the city by foot, accidentally coming across landmarks with surprised delight and pride – we almost felt like locals!

I could, and happily would, tell you about every part of my trip, but I would be here for days, so instead I want to tell you about a little gem that I discovered, again accidentally, but which I can highly recommend. This gem is called Trattoria Caprese.

Situated on Spuistraat, this Italian restaurant is a tranquil oasis compared to the hustle and bustle of the city outside. Greeted by the incredibly friendly and attentive waiters and shown to our table, we were presented with a menu that left us spoilt for choice!

Everything sounded mouth-watering, but after much deliberation we decided on tagliatelle con ragu di vitello e peperoni dolci (tagliatelle with veal ragout and sweet pepper) and polpette con salsa di pomodoro e pane di Altamura (meatballs in tomato sauce with Altamura bread) – both were nothing short of a culinary delight!

Of course, it would have been rude to have stopped at just a main, so we requested the dessert menu and the deliberations began yet again. Eventually it was the tortino caldo al cioccolato (warm chocolate pie) that won and it did not disappoint.

As the hours ticked by, there was not the slightest hint that they wanted us to move on to free up the table which made a refreshing change and as the restaurant filled up with a mixture of tourists, some of whom were happily dining on their own, it was the locals that had reserved tables which confirmed that we had in fact stumbled across a little gem.

Having only been back in the UK for a couple of days, I have already made plans to visit Amsterdam again, but this time I have a new to do list and sitting pride of place at the top will be a visit to Trattoria Caprese.

If you’re planning a trip to one of the greatest small cities in the world, then make sure Trattoria Caprese is on your list – I guarantee you won’t be disappointed.

http://www.restaurantcaprese.nl

https://www.facebook.com/restaurantcaprese?fref=ts

Jellybean Creative is a leading food and drink pr 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.

Guest Blogger

13th April 2015

La Dolce Vita

This Easter I jetted off in style (speedy boarding all the way – I know how to live!) to Naples and then onto Sorrento which served as our base to explore the Amalfi coast and all it had to offer. In a land famed for its fabulous cuisine we felt it our duty as representatives of the leading foodservice agency to sample as much as possible (purely as a fact finding mission you understand). It was a tough job but someone had to do it, and believe me, we did it! Having been to Italy twice before I was looking forward to their foodie delights, but nothing could prepare me for the gigantic lemons which greeted us in Sorrento, not for the amount of Limoncello that was offered free of charge at the end of every meal (thankfully breakfast excluded).

Our trip took in Sorrento, Pompeii, Herculaneum, Capri, Positano (fleetingly), Amalfi and Ravello and we managed to eat our way around the beautiful coastline.
Here are my personal highlights…

Ice Cream from an Italian TV chef – Gelateria Primavera offers a huge array of ice creams which even the most dedicated connoisseur would be hard pressed to work their way through during a week (although we had a fair attempt). The gelateria is owned by TV Chef Antonio and the walls are literally plastered with photos of him with everyone from the Pope to famous footballers and movie stars.
Michelin star dining on Capri – We took the ferry over to Capri and whilst wandering the winding lanes and alleyways that crisscross the island we stumbled upon Aurora restaurant. Listed in the Michelin guide it also boasts celebrity patrons including Reece Witherspoon and Pierce Brosnan. A real find; the food was lovely and the service great!
Historic dining – The sister restaurant to our hotel (Grand Hotel La Favorita) was O Parrucchiano and dates back to 1868. Famous for its cannelloni ‘Stracinati’ it serves traditional dishes from the Campania region it seems to stretch back from the street forever and offers a beautiful setting complete with atrium and fairy lights as well as great food.
Pizza in Pompeii – Pompeii is a tourist’s ‘must’ do, but just a stone’s throw away from the ancient preserved city is a very unassuming café which offered a ‘self-serve’ pizza to die for! Not the most salubrious of settings but what a pizza!
Giant steaks – Travelling with a true carnivore meant that no trip would be complete without sampling the best local steak which led us to the cleverly named Meating where we were presented with steaks that rivalled even the ones sampled in New York at Keens. Certainly worth a try but make sure you go hungry!
Calzone at the top of the world – On the recommendation of a client we headed up into Ravello on the Amalfi coast to visit the Hotel Caruso. We timed it well as they had opened for the season just the day before. We had one of the most amazing views all to ourselves and enjoyed stunning Calzone and pizza whilst sipping strawberry & mint infused prosecco and taking in the stunningly tranquil setting.
Cocktails at the Excelsior – As you approach Sorrento by sea the imposing sight of the iconic hotel Excelsior Vittoria greets you from the rocky coastline. This classic hotel has played host to anyone who is anyone over the years, so we took a stroll down its lemon and orange tree lined driveway (leading off from the main square) one evening to sip cocktails in style on their terrace and take in the sea air. All very civilised and certainly something not to be missed if you are in Sorrento.

All in all we had a fabulous time and managed to take in both the sights and the tastes of this amazing part of the world. I would highly recommend a visit should you ever find yourself Italy bound.

Jellybean Creative is a leading food and drink pr 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.

Susan Wickes

10th April 2015

I never knew I liked Blueberries…

Until I visited America late last year and had several amazing breakfasts, that all seemed to include them. Never one to waste anything, it didn’t seem such a hardship to eat some goodness in the Big Apple (one of my five a day) along with the crispy bacon, french toast and maple syrup! What a lovely sweet and savoury start to the day. I now even put them on my porridge and eat them as a snack as I try and lose weight for my daughters wedding in three weeks time!

Perhaps this could be a third breakfast option in this country after the fantastic Full English and the lighter continental, how about a Full US? However, I was told recently by a foodservice consultant, that it has been tried in the UK by major hotel chains, but consistently fails to sell, guests preferring to fill up on the Full English!

While there, my wife Gill and I tried several amazing restaurants, one of the best was The Brooklyn Diner, made from what looked like an old railway carriage. We got there too late for lunch, so booked in for early evening dinner, and went exploring. We immediately came across a popup food market where all manner of street food was displayed… from bruffins to bamboo bites and cheddbread to pigs in blankets. Foodservice trends and outlets that maybe coming our way in the future?

Back to the amazing diner where traditional bar stools and typically american decor enthralled us! Such fantastic food as well. Brilliantly simple but so delicious. Starter of fried beans and griddled corn. Gone in an instant. Then the best burger in the world.?.. probably, but one in a beach restaurant in Portugal also comes close. This was the real thing though, in the right location with all the right ambience. Why is it that food tastes better in the right location? I can still taste it now. If you ever get the chance – it is well worth a visit.

Not quite so good however was Katz Diner, yes the place where that scene from Where Harry Met Sally was filmed. We definitely didn’t get the same thrill, but we did take our Jellybean with us for the experience. Though can someone please explain to me the tipping system in the US… levels unheard of in the UK – our experience certainly didn’t warrant anywhere near these kind of tips!

A thoroughly enjoyable trip and another yet sweet/savoury combo goes on my ok list, along with sweet and salted popcorn and salted caramel chocolate. I absolutely draw the line at peanuts in chocolate though! Can’t think why people think I’m fussy!

Jellybean Creative is a leading food and drink pr 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.

Guest Blogger

26th March 2015

Let’s ‘Taco’ ‘bout Burritos…

Foodservice PR Agency Mexican food has a firm footing in UK dining this year, with 2015 declared as the ‘Year of Mexico in the UK and the UK in Mexico’.* Plus, just last week Horizons named ‘Mexican Fast Casual’ as one of this year’s trends in foodservice. So when I found myself in Guildford hungry for something quick and tasty, I couldn’t resist the look of Burrito Loco, an independent Mexican restaurant (after all, it’s no good just talking about the trends if you don’t try them!).

Burrito Loco aims to put choice into your hands with a ‘build your own’ meal format (bang-on the ‘customisation’ trend). The first choice comes between a Burrito, Taco, Nachos or Salad Box. Moving along the counter we chose between pulled pork, chicken, beef or vegetarian chilli for our main filling, then between black or refried beans. Finally, a choice of salsa (coming in varying degrees of heat), salad and cheese to finish off your meal.

I had a Beef Burrito, with plenty of salad, salsa and guacamole (worth the 80p extra) which was delicious – my friends and I were all full and happy with our individually built burritos!

I would definitely recommend stopping by Burrito Loco, and with my only regret being that I didn’t try one of their Mexican Brownies, I will definitely be going back very soon.

For more information on Burrito Loco, go to www.burrito-loco.co.uk or follow them on Twitter @BurritoLocoGfrd.

*www.bighospitality.co.uk/Trends-Reports/Restaurant-trends-for-2015

Jellybean Creative is a leading food and drink pr 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.

Guest Blogger

26th March 2015

The Drum Design Agency Census 2015

Food and Drink PR Agency - The Drum Design Census As a truly integrated agency specialising in the foodservice market we pride ourselves on delivering outstanding creative based on sound insight and excellent strategy. With our six strong creative team we cover both print and digital design in-house, and through this fact and our RAR recommended agency status, thereby qualified for The Drum’s Design Agency Census. This year was the first time we entered and we’re very pleased to make it into the top 25 of all three tables for the 10-19 staff category (which includes account handling and other agency design dependent functions). The Drum Design Agency Census provides a comprehensive review of the design marketing agency landscape in the UK, highlighting the key players, trends and growth in this exciting sector and the full report can be found here.

The research is conducted by The Drum in partnership with the Recommended Agency Register, and ranks UK design marketing agencies across three main categories; financial performance, client satisfaction and peer recognition. We were thrilled to come 20th in the client satisfaction table, 24th in the peer recognition table and 23rd in the financial performance table. All pretty impressive rankings when you consider we are a specialist agency working in a sector not exactly known for its big budgets! The particularly nice thing about this census though is that it is based on client reviews collected through the RAR and ratings from our peer agencies. So well done to our fabulous studio and of course, thank you, to our wonderful clients who appreciate the work we do for them.

Hot on the heels of the Design Agency Census is the Independent Agency Census which comes out later this year which we are also in the running for (you may very well have received a ‘can you do us a little favour’ email requesting you vote for us). Voting is now closed so we await with baited breath our rankings – we will of course keep you posted!

Jellybean Creative is a leading food and drink pr 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.

Susan Wickes

25th March 2015

Arena Savoy Lecture

Foodservice Marketing Agency - Arena Savoy Lecture Image of Speaker Addressing the Room As the leading foodservice agency we’ve yet to miss an Arena Savoy Lecture, which is arguably the jewel in the crown of the networking association’s calendar. This year it was the turn of Martin Robinson to take the lectern and enlighten the gathered ‘movers and shakers’ of the out of home world. Martin is the Chairman of Center Parcs UK as well as The Casual Dining Group (Tragus). He started out ‘back in the day’ studying geography at university including a somewhat left field dissertation on the effect on the local economy of the Last of the Summer Wine series (interesting!). His career then progressed via Bonjela, Dettol, Sara Lee, lingerie in Paris (a high point), management consulting across brewing, oil and food and onto Scottish & Newcastle, culminating with the start of his current role at Center Parcs in 1997. But Martin, by his own admission, is bored easily and likes to have a few things on the go. So not content with just having one high flying job he also managed to multi-task across a number of senior roles including Holmes Place, Disneyland Paris and a middle east property investment company (the latter two of which he is still involved with).

The Center Parcs concept was the inspired brainchild of a Dutchman back in the fifties (1958 to be precise) – a genius idea, the concept was completely new and focused around the following ground breaking features: families taking short breaks, getting away from the city to the countryside, being active and doing outdoor activities, being environmentally friendly, people arriving either on a Monday or Friday, being car free and based around bikes and offering guests lots of choice in what they do. It worked, and has been especially successful in the UK, where consumers are keen to spend money on leisure and holidays (often taking up to six holidays a year) and where often exiting our beloved island often involves costly and high stress air travel (especially when considering 75% of guests come with children this is a key factor for choosing Center Parcs over a package holiday abroad). Currently Center Parcs has a 97% occupancy rate and a 68% repeat rate which are impressive figures. It manages to keep its market position by sticking to the original concept, investing in the business, keeping close to customers (guests) with consumer feedback routes, clever revenue management (there is no set tariff it sets the price for optimum margin similar to budget airline flights) and of course innovation, ensuring the concept is kept fresh and keeps those guests coming back time and time again. The other handy thing that works in Center Parcs’ favour are the huge barriers to entry. Even with its proven track record and contacts, it took the company ten years to get planning for Woburn so it really has been able to corner the market.

One of Martin’s many other strings to his bow is his Chairmanship of The Casual Dining Group. He takes a keen interest in the sector and predicts that the market will continue to grow with 2 to 3% added to the size of the out of home market each year through casual dining openings. He also expects to see themed concepts experience some ‘weeding out’ as only those that are truly differentiated and authentic succeeding. He also foresees branded concepts taking healthy eating more seriously and delivering in the mainstream, the rise of mass market premium brands as the middle ground dwindles, the proliferation of eating occasions in line with all day dining, and the rise of fast casual concepts like Nandos. With casual dining, QSR and coffee shops blurring into one, the market is changing and he believes only those brands which offer the consumer what they want when they want it will thrive.

As for the ever present issue of customer service and staffing, across the industry he can see a real gap where a ‘lost’ generation went onto university rather than into hospitality roles, but in recent years with the increase of university fees this is coming back around with vocational learning and apprenticeships picking up. However we are left with this legacy and he is passionate about getting good talent into the industry. Anne from Springboard pointed the great work the charity does and especially the Future Chef programme which generates a pipeline of talented chefs for the industry. But with dry GCSEs in business (as Martin has experienced with his daughter) and hospitality still battling to build a more positive perception of the industry as a career of choice there is still much more to do.

Following a few ‘challenging’ questions from the floor around the quality of the food offered at Center Parcs it was time for the networking to commence and then it was on to dinner prepared by the team at the Savoy. As you would expect it was excellent, (although I have to say I am not one hundred percent on-board with basil meringue – but top marks for pushing the boundaries!). Well done to Lorraine, Berenice and the team at the Savoy on another great event – we look forward to the next with Andrew Guy CEO of Ed’s Easy Diner on 26th June. To find out more about Arena you can visit www.arena.org.uk

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.

Susan Wickes

19th March 2015

Social Media in Foodservice – as featured in QuickBite Magazine

Twitter, Facebook, Google +, Instagram, LinkedIn…the list goes on. Sometimes it feels as if there is a new social media channel to consider every six months. Is it for me? How does it work? Will I be left behind if I decide it’s just one channel too many?

We feel your pain. Hopefully this bite-sized review will help you decide.

Each successful social media channel has a key distinguishing feature that makes them unique, and which they hope will gain them their following.

Here’s our list of the primary social media channels, what makes them unique, and what benefit you might gain from them.

Twitter

A great site for sending short updates to your following, and a simple way to gain a following. Tweets are quick to compose and quick to read resulting in the huge growth in uptake in recent years. #hashtags mean you can easily join larger conversations and the SEO benefits of being part of these conversations are growing.

Facebook

The ‘like’ button on Facebook is the easiest way to allow your brand to be promoted to prospects, and a successful company page invests in publishing content of real value to your audience, increasing your chances of a ‘thumbs up’ – play to the strengths of the platform building your reach through joining groups.

LinkedIn

Make the most of a workforce who very possibly already have a presence and connections Create a business page for staff to follow, join relevant groups on LinkedIn and ensure that your services are updated so that premium members who use LinkedIn to find suppliers, find you.

Instagram

Is your product or service a visual one. Are you either a premium product or brand that is shown off best in beautiful photographs? Do you find your competitors or conversations around your product or service via hashtag searches on Instagram? If so, this might well be for you.

Pinterest

Similar to Instagram in some senses but built around ‘Pins’ which are links back to a webpage containing the original content. This has real benefits in terms of SEO and also in driving leads back to your website. Still a significantly female audience, but if that’s what you’re after it might be for you.

Google +

If the majority of your new business leads are from search traffic then Google + might just be the platform for you. Due to it’s integration with the search engine giant, it is an easy SEO win to link your Google + account with your website.

As with any content marketing online, be it social or otherwise, we would always encourage businesses to think from the user back, rather than brand forward.

Find out which social media channels your audience use and what they use them for. Then decide what content you can easily develop that has real value to the end user; be it an online tool, white paper or video.

Broadcast this on social media and your audience will share the content for you, amplifying your business’ reach.

Jellybean Creative is a leading social media foodservice 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.

Andy Wickes

18th March 2015

Jellybean Support the Weir Archer Academy

Social Media Foodservice - Jellybean Supports the Weir Archer Academy Last Friday found Susan and I guests at a glittering fund-raiser for the Weir Archer Academy, held at the magnificent and mighty Great Fosters in Egham.

Little prepares you for the sight of Great Fosters in Egham, and arriving at night to see the exterior illuminated with flame only makes it more dramatic.

Built in 1550 amidst 50 acres of carefully clipped gardens and lawn, this grand old pile of bricks and in particular its tithe barn was our venue for the evening.

The Weir Archer Academy was set up by now legendary Paralympian David Weir CBE and his trainer Jenny Archer. The Academy provides athlete and coaching support and expertise across all levels and abilities including working with Schools in South London, Surrey, Sussex and Hampshire; working with clubs and coaches from the South East and providing access to the Academy for international development for under resourced counties.

After witnessing first hand the paucity of British Paralympic athletes at the Beijing Games when compared with other nations, Weir felt that the sport was fighting for its very survival in Britain. The Weir Archer Academy seeks to nurture the very best athletes and in doing so generate the Paralympians of the future.

As a supporter of the charity, Jellybean donated both design work in the production of much of the printed material on the night, but also in donating an internship to be auctioned off in the silent auction.

And so on the night we were extremely fortunate that both David and Jenny were able to join us, as well as a great number of Academy athletes shortly to race in the marathon.

Festivities kicked off with a champagne reception to the strains of ‘Sweetheart Swing’, a female duo channelling the forces-era close vocal harmonies of The Andrews Sisters.

Suitably refreshed we decamped to the vast tithe barn and to our table for a delicious three course meal of salmon terrine, followed by tender lamb with mint sauce and lastly a trio of chocolate mousse, salted caramel cream and salted caramel ice cream.

Speeches from David followed by a video presentation set out the amazing work the Academy does and what an enormous difference it brings to the lives of children living with disability.

Next came the main business of the evening – raising some much needed money from the guests via the auction – expertly helmed by the effervescent and energetic Joe Gallagher, things got off to a great start. Some amazing lots were generously donated including a ‘money-can’t-buy’ VIP package for Bestival including backstage passes as well as a highly prized Victoria Beckham clutch bag.

Once the final lot had been auctioned, duties fell to the band, Fully Funktional, who kicked off the dancing – right away vocalists, guitarists and even the trombone player were amongst the audience pulling people up onto the dance floor.

As we speak the total raised is already over £20,000.00 – a magnificent sum which will transform the lives of so deserving children and young adults.

Enormous thanks go to all involved in the production of the event and the hospitality on the night, but special thanks go to Tania and Joe Gallagher whose idea for the event and organisation in every area was carried out with determination, dedication and above all else a smile.

For more information on the vital work that the Weir Archer Academy carries out, please visit the website here.

Jellybean Creative is a leading social media foodservice 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.

Andy Wickes

16th March 2015

For the love of food!

We all know that Mother’s Day is a time to spoil the most important person in your life, your mum, but when the treat you have planned turns into something special for the whole family, you know you’re onto a winner!

Typically after a week of sunny, mild weather, Mother’s Day was a dull and wet affair, but that didn’t dampen the celebrations as tucked away in leafy Cobham, Surrey, Fego was a hive of Mother’s Day activity.

Awarded a place in The Times ‘25 Best Places for Brunch’ 2014, Fego’s is proud of its love affair with food and its extensive brunch menu is something to behold. From gourmet Brunch Burritos to Spicy Scrambled Eggs to Boston Triple Beans on Toast or Buck and Bunny (classic rarebit with grilled thick-cut bacon and fluffy poached eggs), and not forgetting the sweet toothed amongst us who would happily devour an ‘All American Pancake Stack’, the menu alone is a joy to read!

With the option to add a Bloody Mary or glass of Bucks Fizz with any brunch order you can certainly go to town, but for those who want to opt for a healthy alternative there’s an array of fruit based delights such as Greek and Granola Sundae Berry or Berry Chilly to choose from.

Fego’s also caters fantastically for coeliacs with a full and diverse gluten-free menu that includes many of the delicious dishes from the main menu.

This was our first time at Fego’s, but it was nothing short of a delight. Not only was the food scrumptious, the staff were friendly and attentive, the prices were reasonable and as it was a special occasion, the simple gesture of giving every mum a homemade fairy cake to take home was the cherry on the top!

We may have only just begun to explore the brunch menu, but we will most certainly be coming back. Although trying to decide between one of the gorgeous homemade afternoon sweet treats or a full blown evening meal will be no easy feat – we may just have to do both!

To find out more about Fego’s and to read its mouth-watering menus, visit www.fegocaffe.co.uk or follow them @FegoUK.

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.

Guest Blogger

12th March 2015

Alternative CV – Adam Gray

What was your favourite subject at school?
Music / Music Technology.

What was your best subject as school?
Music / Music Technology.

What was your first-ever job?
Folding paper in a paper factory.

What was your worst ever job?
I’m going to go with folding paper in a paper factory.

What was the first music single you bought?
Maroon 5 – Songs about Jane.

What is the most entrepreneurial thing you have ever done?
I’ll get back to you on that one.

What is your motto in life?
Don’t worry so much, no one else knows what they’re doing either.

If you were allowed one dream perk what would it be?
Be paid to travel the world.

What’s your favourite movie and why?
Shaun of the dead, because zombies.

If you could pick a celebrity to join the agency who would it be and why?
Grumpy cat.

What luxury would you have on your desert island?
Super-fast broadband.

What animal best reflects your personality and why?
A cat, because they’re pretty laid back.

If you could be anybody in the world (alive or dead) who would you be and why?
I would be myself, but maybe with a poncho or something.

Jellybean Creative is a leading foodservice public relations and marketing and communications agency. We help top brands with foodservice public relations, 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.

Guest Blogger

11th March 2015

What's on the Horizon for 2015?

Foodservice Marketing - Horizons 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.

Susan Wickes

6th March 2015

Cheggers Plays FPA Awards

Foodservice Marketing Agency - Cheggers Plays FPA 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.

Susan Wickes