As a leading food and drink agency, insights and data are at the heart of our marketing campaigns. So, understandably, we make a point of keeping our finger on the pulse by attending Lumina Intelligence’s Food Strategy Forum.
As a leading food and drink marketing agency with a passion for foodservice and eating out, we make it our business to keep on top of all the latest trends in the food and drink arena. The world of food to go, or quick service restaurants as it’s sometimes referred to, is a hotbed of innovation and has proved to be one of the most resilient sectors of the eating out market, both during Covid more recently the cost-of-living crisis. So, we hot-footed it along to The Ham Yard Hotel last week to hear from some of the key players in the food to go market at MCA’s Food to Go Conference.
What’s better than reading about the latest out-of-home trends? Eating and drinking them! As you know, we are well-versed in the out-of-home market, but we love keeping up to date with the latest developments through Lumina’s Food Strategy Forum Debrief (which you can read here), swiftly followed by the Lumina Food Concept Study Tour.
This time around, we took a venture out to Hackney for the latest food safari, looking at all the new, exciting operators and concepts that are at the forefront of innovation and trends. Here is a quick whistle-stop tour of the afternoon…
As a leading food and drink agency, we make it our business to keep up to date with the latest eating out trends. The Lumina Foodservice Strategy Forum is always an informative session, packed with a wealth of data on the out-of-home market, upcoming trends and consumer behaviour.
Q4 looked into current mega trend and menu composition, along with a look to the future with key trends for 2024.
Over the course of the next year, plant-based menu options are set to increase by over 400%1, signalling an emerging shift in the foodservice industry. With 23% of UK consumers identifying as flexitarian2 (primarily eating plant-based with occasional inclusion of meat), and 40% of British consumers demanding plant-based options3, the market for plant-based alternatives continues to grow. And with conversations about the planet only intensifying, it doesn’t stop there. Consumers are also looking for sustainable alternatives to mainstream foods.
As the leading food and drink agency with 36 years’ experience in foodservice, we know a thing or two about eating out. But as they say, every day is a school day and what better kind of school day than a trip out in the sunshine to see what culinary delights Kings Cross has to offer?
As a leading food and drink agency we make it our business to keep up to date with the latest eating out market trends. The hugely informative Lumina Foodservice Strategy Forum last week provided a wealth of data and insight on our favourite topic…the out of home foodservice market.
As September approaches and the kids go back to school – it can only mean one thing: Christmas is right around the corner. Savvy retail food and drink brands looking to position themselves as perfect Christmas gifts know that now is the prime time to roll out their Christmas PR campaigns. In this blog I’ll delve into why now is the perfect time to launch a campaign, explore various tactics brands can employ, and highlight how an agency like jellybean can help maximise results.
As a leading food and drink marketing agency specialising in both out of home and retail, we eagerly anticipate the quarterly Lumina Intelligence briefings.
These sessions play a vital role in keeping us well-informed about the most recent developments and emerging trends in the foodservice industry, allowing us to best inform client strategy. The latest forum from the Lumina team did not disappoint, with the very insightful debrief followed by the cult-status Food Safari around Borough Market – it’s safe to say we all left with a lot of food for thought and very full but happy tummies!
The annual Arena Savoy Lecture is a highlight of the foodservice calendar and as the leading foodservice agency we dusted off our gladrags and headed up to town to join the great and the good of the industry.
I had the pleasure of attending the Food Innovation Solutions webinar the other week. Here are my key takeouts from the presentation featuring internal research conducted by thefoodpeople and Good Sense Research:
Typography. You just click the drop-down and choose something you like the look of. Simple. Serif if it’s formal, sans-serif if it isn’t. Job. Done. Well no. Typography is almost certainly the most under-appreciated element of visual design. Done well it’s amost invisible. Change the typeface on Apple, on Easyjet, on Nike or on Converse, and the entire brand is lost. It’s the tone of voice, it’s the personality, it’s the rhythm and meter of the message and it’s been that way since the earliest letterforms began organising communication, writing histories and spreading news around our world. So what should be looking out for in 2023. Read on good traveller, read on.
Earlier this month I headed into a rather rainy London for the first Lumina Food Strategy Forum of the year. With a new venue – the Everyman Broadgate – Lumina’s quarterly forums provide a fantastic insight into how the out-of-home market and consumer behaviours have changed over the previous quarter.
The inaugural Foodservice Summit, brought about by the wonderful team behind Bread & Jam Fest, was held at the beginning of March in an effort to help foodie start-ups crack open the often misunderstood world of away from home and showcase the many opportunities that the foodservice market can offer brands. As a leading foodservice agency we were of course there and were in fact proud to be a sponsor of this exciting new addition to the foodservice calendar.
The MCA Food to Go Conference is always a must attend event and this year was no exception. As a leading food and drink agency we make it our business to stay on top of the latest trends, so we were there to hear from a stella line-up of experts from market insight to operators. The day was, as ever, jam-packed, but here are our top take-outs…
News that the Government plans to centralise regional buying and distribution agreements across food and catering supplies to appoint one single ‘super supplier’ for schools, hospitals, care homes, local authorities and developed administrations, has sent shockwaves through the foodservice industry. The plan which seems to be at best ill-advised (if advised at all) and at worse, a step towards a monopoly has been met with criticism across the board, as industry experts, suppliers and wholesalers air their concerns at the lack of consultation.
Leveraging the consumer pull of a restaurant brand to create a range of products in retail is not a new idea by any means. Indeed, since 1998 Pizza Express has had their incredibly successful FMCG range in retail. Then followed Nando’s, Itsu, Greggs, YO!, TGI Fridays, Ed’s Diner, Chiquitos and Harry Ramsden’s. There is also Carluccios’s, Zizzi, Wahaca, Wasabi, Wagamama and more! In fact, we recently worked on the launch of Cinnamon Kitchen into Tesco, a range of premium Indian fine dining ready meals developed by Vivek Singh of The Cinnamon Club group of restaurants (you can read more here).
January is an important time to predict and consider what trends and changes we can expect to see in the culinary world throughout the year. In the food and hospitality industry, staying ahead of the curve is essential in order to appeal to customers and remain successful. Although we’ve already looked at trends in the eating out market, here, we will explore what flavours and ingredients chefs and restauranteurs should be aware of in 2023:
As you may or may not be aware, the Environment Act 2021 passed in November 2021 along with the food waste disposal rules are set to change and the implications for any organisation generating food waste in England are sizeable.
As a leading food and drink marketing agency covering both away from home and convenience channels (as well as consumer) we look forward to the quarterly Lumina Intelligence briefings to help ensure we keep up to date with the latest trends in the eating out market. Here are my top 10 take outs from yesterday’s Food Strategy Forum debrief…
