From event catering to healthcare, CSR to marketing, the FSM Awards (Foodservice Management Awards) aim to celebrate the best and the brightest in the field of contract catering. This year the glittering awards night, was held at the Lancaster London and hosted by Mark Durden-Smith (a foodservice favourite it would seem). The awards were dispersed between courses, prepared by leading contract caterers Elior, Sodexo, CH&Co and of course our hosts for the night, The Lancaster London – all of which were equally delicious.

The format worked well and as the evening progressed the conversation flowed along with the wine, as we welcomed onto the stage the well-deserved winners to receive their awards. The charity nominated for the evening was Sue Ryder who offers support to those suffering from life changing illnesses, offering hospices and neurological care. The charity was one close to the heart of Robyn Jones who sadly passed away earlier this year and in tribute to the outstanding work Robyn did in the contract catering industry she was posthumously awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award which her husband Tim Jones collected for her. It was a poignant moment which honoured a hugely respected and much missed figure in our industry.

The full list of winners can be found here FSM Awards 2015. Congratulations must go to all the nominees and winners, along with the sponsors of the evening (which included our client Pritchitts) and of course the great team at H2O headed up by Alan Dewberry. Another great event celebrating the best talent in the realm of contract catering.

Jellybean Creative is a leading food service marketing and communications agency. We help top brands with food service pr, food service 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.

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.

Since 2006 I’ve been talking about the importance of catering for gluten intolerances on behalf of Almondy, Sweden’s great tasting gluten-free cakes, which recently celebrated its 10,000,000th cake sale here in the UK. In this time I’ve seen gluten-free grow from a niche market to exploding into the foodservice and retail sectors, thanks partly to celebrity endorsements, but also due to the hard work of amazing organisations such as Coeliac UK, which is educating people on the symptoms of what can be a serious and deadly disease.

Coeliac disease affects 1 in 100 people in the UK, and the UK gluten-free market is forecast to grow by 46% by 2017*. On top of this, 62% of people living with coeliac disease only eat out once a month or less due to lack of menu choices (survey by Coeliac UK). Therefore there is a huge demand for gluten-free dishes and as a leading foodservice agency, Jellybean has been supporting several of its clients in tapping into the opportunity, showcasing how their products can put gluten-free options onto menus.

From social media campaigns, to consumer insight, infographics and recipe development, during this year’s Coeliac Awareness Week, Jellybean developed bespoke campaigns with Aviko, Tilda and Almondy that not only raised awareness for Coeliac UK and the week itself, but importantly delivered real results for the brands.

As well as inspiring chefs to consider more gluten-free options on menus, our activity generated 1,000 new followers for our clients’ Twitter accounts and 6,600,000 opportunities to see in just one week! Here’s a snap shot of what we’ve been up to for Coeliac Awareness Week 2015.

Tilda Seven Days of Gluten Free Giveaways

Tilda was looking to promote the gluten-free properties of its rice through the Tilda Foodservice Twitter account @TildaChef, giving bona fide UK chefs the chance to win a 5Kg bag of Tilda Easy Cook Basmati each day of the week. In addition our crack team of social media experts increased their Twitter activity to include a greater focus on gluten-free Tilda recipes, drove engagement with anagrams, as well as targeting those using the #CoeliacUKAwarenessWeek. During the week @TildaChef received over 400 new followers and generated a staggering 3 million opportunities to see!

Aviko Gluten-Free Heroes

With over 70 gluten-free products in its range and two dedicated gluten-free factories, Aviko was keen to highlight its potato sides to operators and help caterers become ‘Gluten-Free Heroes’ by swapping popular menu sides to more Coeliac friendly options. Jellybean carried out consumer research that highlighted the risks of serving hidden gluten to Coeliacs – and through deep drilling found that 60% of people don’t realise that not all chips are gluten-free – this gave us our hook!

Armed with hard-hitting stats to show the risk of serving hidden gluten, a high-impact infographic was developed to make the stats easy to share, and awareness on an important issue driven through PR and social media generating pick-up across the trade press. Recipes were also developed with the Craft Guild of Chefs’ Daniel Ayton – a Coeliac himself – to inspire caterers to take action on gluten and adapt their menus.

During Coeliac Awareness Week Twitter activity was ramped-up to highlight Aviko’s gluten free range. This included high-impact info-bites taken from the research and menu inspiration was offered via Coeliac friendly recipe cards. We also focused on highlighting the important work of Coeliac UK, supporting the charity with Aviko pledging to donate £2 for every follow and RT during the week, as well as the chance to win a personalised chef’s jacket and one of five Aviko and Coeliac UK goody bags. The week long activity generated an opportunity to see of 1.2M and raised £600 for an important cause.

Almondy #GFChocoHamper

Last year Jellybean worked with Almondy to help it launch four new cakes into foodservice and retail, including an indulgent new Cadbury cake topped with real Dairy Milk buttons. To continue building awareness of the cake with Almondy’s followers and promote Almondy’s 33 years of gluten-free credentials we used Twitter and a simple, yet effective follow and RT mechanic to win one of five Gluten-Free Cadbury Hampers through its #GFChocoHamper campaign. The giveaway generated a huge amount of engagement taking Almondy’s following to over 3,000 followers and reaching well over a 2 million people.

But our work around gluten-free and coeliac friendly menus doesn’t stop at Coeliac Awareness Week. With the introduction of the allergen legislation back in December, free-from and allergens are very much at the top of mind for caterers and we will do all we can to ensure our clients’ brands help chefs and caterers maximise the opportunity from this growing market. To find out more about Coeliac Awareness Week and Coeliac UK click here.

* F&D Innovation Network’s free-from conference, 2013

Jellybean Creative is a leading foodservice marketing agency 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.