From culinary catwalks to whimsical wrappers
By T.L. Stanley
 |
| If Sriracha is so 2015, what's the new flavor sensation for 2016 and beyond? Mother In Law's | |
Called the
Organic Valley Coffee Shop,
this unique pop-up store opened in Manhattan a few weeks ago to lines a
dozen deep. The caffeine-seeking crowd didn't know, but soon found out,
that the joint sold only Organic Valley Half & Half in sizes like
Lil Bit, Double and Lotta, a not-so-subtle poke in the eye to a certain
mega chain. The whole venture, in fact, was sort of a goof, but it made
for great video starring a folksy dairy farmer chatting up Nolita
hipsters. (They paid $2 for the creamer but got their cups of joe for
free, so no one left without their fix).
The stunt, engineered by ad agency Humanaut, is an example of
unexpected, breakthrough marketing that's happening across the food
world, where origin stories, even if they're served up with a side of
Punk'd, matter more than ever.
Adweek takes a look at this and other trends that run the gamut from
packaging innovation—turn that burger box into a high-tech toy—to the
hottest flavors emerging on the scene. What we found: food is fashion,
food is political, food is a battleground, but it's not just for adults.
It's no accident that a bunch of 8-year-olds can cook better than you.
Take a look at our roundup here:
1. Eatertainment
 |
| Tostinos | |
Goodby, Silverstein & Partners created a four-episode telenovela, dubbed
Botanas del Cielo
(Snacks from Heaven) to hype client Tostitos' new chips and salsa, and
Hamburger Helper dropped a (shockingly good) five-track hip-hop mixtape
called "Watch the Stove" that quickly became a viral hit this spring,
snagging upwards of 4 million plays on SoundCloud in its first few days.
Ad agency Humanaut, meantime, stepped up its satire and stunts for
Organic Valley, showing that food marketers have a sense of humor and
understand the halo effect of quality branded content. "Food can only
take itself so seriously," said David Littlejohn, Humanaut's founder,
chief creative director. "And if you do something fun and surprising,
the brand gets credit in a way they never do when they're interrupting
your sitcom."
Competition is fierce for creating shareworthy branded bits, he said,
but the payoff can be huge. And the investment? Even a five-figure video
can turn into a viral success. Marketers, forever eyeing the bottom
line, seem to be more open than ever to this kind of digital
experimentation. "Brands are realizing they need to have a voice,"
Littlejohn said, "because they're actors in the culture."
2. Be P.C.
Is it cage-free, grass-fed, fair trade, non-GMO, sustainably raised and
locally grown? Bonus points for heirloom or ancient. Consumers are
demanding more morally conscious, real food as brand packaging and
advertising increasingly takes note. It's gone beyond Deutsch's happy
cows, for the
California Milk Advisory Board,
to U.K. retailer Waitrose live-streaming video of its supplier farms,
which is just as pastoral as it sounds. Consumers want to know exactly
what they're eating and where it's from, which, CEO and founder of Fexy
Media's SeriousEats.com Ed Levine says, shows their food sophistication,
environmental awareness and "respect for the craft."
"People crave authenticity," he said. "They really want to know the provenance of the food and whose hands were in the dough."
And woe to those who fudge the story, as food fans are quick to ferret
out hypocrisy and spread it via social media. A recent expose dubbed
"Farm to Fable" in the Tampa Bay Times, widely circulated online, found
that the "local" claims of some area restaurants were far from genuine.
"If you throw those words around, whether on packaging or advertising or
in a restaurant," Levine said, "someone may just pull back the
curtain."
3. Waste not
Chains like Trader Joe's are touting their donations to local shelters
and soup kitchens as food waste makes national headlines and gets
skewered on John Oliver's HBO series, Last Week Tonight. It's the focus
of award-winning documentary Just Eat It, which estimates that about 40
percent of the food purchased in the U.S. each year goes uneaten,
wasting $165 billion in money, water, labor and energy.
The Natural Resources Defense Council, with agency SapientNitro and the
Ad Council, addressed the problem in a PSA dubbed, "Save the Food,"
that followed a strawberry from birth on the vine to sad, furry death in
the back of the fridge. Celebrity chefs stepped up their activism in
the area – Mario Batali released a free mini-cookbook online called Ugly
Food: A Collection for Earth Day this spring, asking home cooks and
industry pros to embrace "cosmetically challenged produce," while Tom
Colicchio continued his public crusade to cut waste via his non-profit
Food Policy Action. Roy Choi and Daniel Patterson started integrating
what could be considered scraps into their recipes at trendy Los Angeles
restaurant
LocoL
and Dan Barber of Manhattan's famed Blue Hill created a pop-up event
called wastED with famous chefs using culinary odds and ends.
4. Child's play
 |
| Cooking with Amber | |
Chef Gordon Ramsay noticed how food-obsessed kids had become about five
years ago, likely reflecting geek-friendly molecular gastronomy and
access to simple recipes and demos online in a post-Ratatouille world,
he said. Cooking started to outpace youth sports in popularity, with
turnout for early Masterchef Junior auditions "much bigger than we'd
predicted—just extraordinary," Ramsay said. Now you can't swing a dead
carp without hitting a pint-sized culinary contest.
Food Network has nearly a half-dozen kid competitions—the latest, Kids
BBQ Championship, launched in May—and FYI just kicked off the second
season of its hit, Man vs. Child: Chef Showdown. Fox's successful staple
Masterchef Junior, which premieres its fifth season this fall, has more
adult-kid co-viewing than any other broadcast series on Friday nights.
Elsewhere, young chefs like Amber Kelley are increasing their digital influence while YouTube star
Rosanna Pansino's
Nerdy Nummies has racked up more than 25 million video views. There are
cooking magazines and summer camps for tweens and teens, and
merchandise that leaves the Easy-Bake Oven in the dust. "Kids really
learn confidence and life skills by cooking," Ramsay said. "And they're
now re-educating their parents on how to eat properly."
5. Culinary catwalk
 |
| Urban Outfitters | |
Starbucks tucked into Target stores have started selling beer and wine,
and retailers like Urban Outfitters and Club Monaco are mixing food and
fashion to lure consumers into their "lifestyle destinations." Urban
Outfitters is rolling out more hip restaurants in their stores from
superstar chefs Ilan Hall, Marc Vetri, Michael Symon and others. The new
food-and-shopping combos are aimed squarely at millennials, trying to
give them something they can't buy online: an experience.
"Today's consumers want to shop for shoes, hang out with their friends,
have a meal, all in one place," said Lisa Shotland, agent in the
lifestyle group at Hollywood's Creative Artists Agency. "Food is a great
community builder."
One of the most recent openings: Urban's Space 24 Twenty in Austin with
Symon's Burger Joint and Pizzeria Vetri. Still going strong: Hall's
Israeli barbeque restaurant Esh, formerly The Gorbals, in Urban's
Brooklyn location, which sports a busy rooftop bar. Meantime,
Club Monaco
opened a pop-up shop in Copenhagen's Noma, known as one of the best
restaurants in the world. The curated collection, a first of its kind at
the upscale eatery, earned a 12-page slideshow in GQ. Shotland predicts
plenty more fusions of retail and restaurant brands.
6. It's a wrap
 |
| Domino's | |
Not only does food need to be intriguing, the packaging it comes in
should pull its weight, too. And increasingly it does, with marketers
like
Dominos
in the U.K. redesigning its pizza boxes to looked exactly like
oversized red and blue domino playing pieces, and McDonald's in Sweden
launching Happy Meal boxes that turned into virtual reality headsets.
Customization like Coke cans printed with your name and Diet Coke's
unique digitally printed designs will continue to be popular, as the
soda maker just kicked off a summer song lyrics promotion, putting
phrases from All I Do is Win, We Are the Champions and other chart
toppers alongside its iconic logo.
Packaging also has to serve other, higher purposes, being earth
friendly, less wasteful and more informative. Old-fashioned,
vintage-look wrappers are becoming common, especially for artisanal and
small-batch products, and stripped down and streamlined is the order of
the day. But it's dubbed essentialism—just the facts—rather than
minimalism. And as in other food areas, story rules. "You have to talk
about the origin and the benefit of the product," said Seguin, whose
Popchips has gone through a full-scale packaging revamp lately. "That's
the millennial mindset, and it's really driving decisions."
Full Article at :
http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/8-food-marketing-trends-you-need-know-about-right-now-171680
