The B2B Marketing UK Agencies Benchmarking Report 2026 is out, and we’re delighted that jellybean has been named both as a Top 10 UK Market and Strategy Planning Specialist (coming in at no.7) and a Top 40 UK B2B Marketing Agency (coming in at no.34).
A couple of weeks ago saw the last of Lumina’s Quarterly 2025 briefings, packed full of data and what we can expect to see in the world of hospitality as we welcome in 2026. Following the highly insightful deep dive, our hosts took us on a festive foray around Spitalfields Market.
Last week, I had the pleasure of being invited to the Lumina Intelligence Food Concept Tour in London. We spent an inspiring afternoon exploring a range of diverse food outlets, sampling their innovative offerings and discovering what makes each concept unique. I was also fortunate to share this experience with the lovely Courtney, one of my colleagues, which made the day even more enjoyable.
Let’s just accept it. It’s a weird time to be alive.
It feels like only yesterday that I saw a man wearing a beekeeper’s mask and bright yellow marigolds while queuing at an off license. Was it really five years ago that Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby shared a tender embrace through a reinforced plastic shroud on live TV? Did Matt Hancock actually exist?
As two avid Spurs fans, it was only right that Nick and I joined Arena’s latest sell-out ‘Behind the Scenes’ event at Tottenham Hotspur’s world-class stadium – a day that combined thought provoking talks with an insider tour of how elite venues are redefining hospitality.
Despite having now been out of the education system for (an undisclosed) number of years, there’s still something about September that feels like new beginnings. Summer drawing to a close, battling the school run on the commute, whispers of the C word; there’s a marked shift in the culture as autumn approaches and with it, the all-new opportunities and excitement that comes with a new term.
Flora Southey is Editor of Food Navigator, her role comprises of covering the latest food trends, sustainability, regulation, and nutrition across Europe, North America, and APAC. In her Q&A, as part of the Lumina Q2 Food Strategy Forum, Flora provided a fascinating look at what consumers are hungry for in the ingredient world, as well as what food and beverage manufacturers and operators should be focussing on to make the most of the opportunities.
It’s been a challenging time for the pub market; but how is it fairing and what are the trends pubs need to consider to drive growth? Here are our take outs from last month’s Lumina Q2 Food Strategy Forum.
As part of Lumina Intelligence’s Food Strategy Forum day the beans enjoyed a Food Concept Study Tour, dedicated to highlighting London’s most exciting operators at the forefront of innovation. The theme for this quarter “Demonstrating Quality,” showcased how venues are elevating classics such as burgers, pizzas and sandwiches with innovative flavours, locally sourced ingredients, and refined processes.
On the hottest day of the year so far, myself and jellybean Account Director, Clare Freeman headed to London for the Lumina Q2 Food Strategy Forum. Hosted at the Everyman Cinema – Kings Cross, the fully packed session provided an insightful look into the eating out market, as well as what consumers want, the pub market and ingredient innovation. The Lumina panel walked us through the ongoing challenges, as well as the significant opportunities, for growth in 2025 and beyond.
On the hottest day of the year so far, myself and jellybean Account Director, Clare Freeman headed to London for the Lumina Q2 Food Strategy Forum. Hosted at the Everyman Cinema – Kings Cross, the fully packed session provided an insightful look into the eating out market, as well as what consumers want, the pub market and ingredient innovation. The Lumina panel walked us through the ongoing challenges, as well as the significant opportunities, for growth in 2025 and beyond.
jellybean is thrilled to celebrate an award season like no other!
We have been recognised by not one, but three award bodies in recent months, including the prestigious Drum Awards for Marketing (finalist), World Food Innovation Awards 2025 (winner) and Foodservice Packaging Association Awards (winner). These global and UK programmes acknowledge excellence and innovation in marketing, the food & drink industry, as well as the packaging sector.
At a recent Alliance of Independent Agencies event, I heard a staggering statistic that there are now around 30,000 agencies in the UK, with 16,000 of those set up in the last 10 years! With so much competition and increased pressure on marketing budgets it’s never been more important to have a clear specialism as an agency. Thankfully, jellybean has always been all about food and drink, from our foodservice roots to our natural evolution into retail and consumer. For over 37 years we have been laser focused on food and drink be it foodservice, retail, convenience or consumer. Of course, the downside to being a sector specialist is that you can limit your potential growth into other areas and on occasion come up against client conflict. We believe the upside far outweighs these factors as we have created a clear vision for our business and team, attract other likeminded food-obsessed colleagues and build a depth of knowledge that can help clients’ brands and businesses grow.
As we covered in our previous blog post – ‘Wellbeing, Connection and Growth, we’ve bean embracing January!’ the first month of the year presents the perfect opportunity for us to take it easy and detox, with challenges like Dry January. This initiative has been around for 12 years now and has stuck for good reason, with over 200,000 people signing up last year. For some, it provides motivation to try cutting alcohol out of their lives for a month, and for others, it’s the chance to reflect and be mindful of how much alcohol we actually drink and see if we can cut down at all (if we want to, of course).
Every year, at Christmas, jellybean embarks on a mission to support charities close to our heart and spread festive joy.
This year, we ran a competition like no other! jellybean’s Great Christmas Sandwich Off saw six bean teams battle it out to compose a Christmas-themed sandwich that honoured their nominated charity.
“When you own your breath, nobody can steal your peace” Anon
Working in a fast paced communications agency has its challenges and requires energy, dedication and resilience, which is why we take the mental health* and wellbeing of our team very seriously at jellybean. We regularly carry out internal surveys to check-in and see how our team are feeling and identify where the professional pinch points are.
This month, we have brought our latest client campaign platform Make it Mutti to life in an extraordinary way, staging a 3-night immersive dining experience at the Saatchi Gallery, London (17-19 September 2024). This unique event, took invited guests on a culinary journey through the life cycle of the tomato, combining incredible food, technology, and multi-sensory storytelling in a celebration of the tomato and Mutti’s heritage and values.
As the founder of jellybean 37 years ago I am proud to announce that as of September 2024 we are an employee-owned business through an EOT (Employee Ownership Trust).
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.
