Tom Collins, Consumer Insight Specialist, Bord Bia – Irish Food Board
Consumers are once again hungry for, and feel able to spend on, exhilarating and unusual experiences. Those which will enrich their everyday lives so as to provide an antidote to the pressures of modern day living. However, the experience is only half of the story.
As featured in our Shared Experiences trend (Consumer Lifestyle Trends programme) sharing the good times with your social network is becoming a more fundamental part of the experience itself. Taking a spotlight to the millennial & younger cohorts, an experience only becomes one when it has been shared.
Food and drink experiences have now become social currency for consumers’ social media profiles, with Instagram acting as one of the leading facilitators. The rise of #foodporn, #instafood and #delicious hashtags reflect that we love to share our food and more so, our experience.
We are now beginning to see restaurants tapping into this trend and taking responsibility for their own brand communications. They are no longer relying on the consumer to provide a hashtag of their restaurant name or hoping that they take a photo which features some of their branded ware, napkins or menus etc.
Today it’s becoming increasingly common to see a cocktail, a bowl of pasta or a tuna steak with the name of the restaurant emblazoned on it. E.A.K Ramen in NYC has a logo of a ramen bowl and the restaurant name, printed onto it’s nori, using a patented technology from Japan. Megu, a restaurant in the Dream Hotel in New York, has their name and logo seared into a slice of Tuna, using a hot branding iron. Bars are getting involved by stenciling the top of their cocktails or branding their bespoke cubes of ice like Pacific Cocktail Haven in San Francisco.
Brands that not only excite and entertain consumers with rich and rewarding experiences, but also facilitate sharing in innovative new ways, will win deep engagement with today’s connected consumers.
For more information please contact tom.collins@bordbia.ie