As customer tastes and habits continue to evolve, the big challenge for those working in food and drink market is how best to stay in tune with them. That will be one of the key themes for CGA’s new Insight 2018 conference in London on April 19.
Claudia Nicholls-Magielsen (pictured above), marketing director at Weight Watchers UK and who has held top marketing roles at the Consumers Association and Yum Brands, will bring an alternative view on consumer behaviour and the food market, when she joins Casual Dining Group’s chief customer and digital officer Celia Pronto, whose background includes senior marketing roles with Bookatable and Ford’s retail group, on the Meeting the challenges panel. They’ll be discussing the attraction and effectiveness of new techniques for understanding consumers and a brand’s DNA – as well as a wide range of other big issues facing the broad food and drink arena.
Setting the scene will be Rachel Perryman (pictured left), strategic initiative director at CGA, who will explore what CGA’s new consumer segmentation, which tracks the way people actually eat and drink out of the home, tells us about the make-up and motivations of the restaurant, pub and bar customer base, and what operators should be doing about it.
The way technology is shaping the future of eating and drinking-out – and how the public interacts with it – was put under the full spotlight last month with the launch of the wagamamago pay-and-go app. Wagamama’s CIO Richard Tallboy will be talking about that and the brand’s wider commitment to tech innovation – and meeting customer expectations of tech.
He’ll be joining Jungle Creations’ founder Jamie Bolding and US restaurant tech investor Michael Atkinson on the conference’s Cultural Disruptors panel in what promises to provide one of the afternoon’s hottest discussions.
Bolding’s Jungle Creations is the most viewed media company on Facebook, delivering high-quality content, much around food and drink, to an audience of almost 59 million Facebook followers worldwide – and now its Twisted cooking channel, which has over 10 million followers, has launched a delivery-only restaurant in East London, allowing every recipe video posted on the Facebook page to be ordered via delivery.
US food and restaurant tech entrepreneur and investor Michael Atkinson believes technology will be the saviour of the eating-out market and is now pioneering voice-activated ordering solutions. His experience includes running restaurants in the US, working on Wall Street and launching and investing in a string of restaurant tech projects, including FohBoh, the original online B2B community for global foodservice.
Another highlight of the afternoon will be the Driven to Drink session, when boss of the award-winning Alchemist bar group Simon Potts, whose expanding brand is bringing the art of mixology to the mainstream, will join craft beer brewer and bar owner John Gyngell, founder of another award-winning business, Leeds-based North Bar and North Brewing Co, to examine how the premiumisation of drink is now central to driving the evolution and quality of the out-of-home experience – and changing the way alcohol itself is marketed.
Meanwhile, Alex Doman of Egremont International will be presenting the results of a collaboration between his agency and CGA to understand brand momentum – a core issue in the light of recent brand failures.
The conference will again be chaired by CGA’s vice president Peter Martin, who said of the event’s themes: “With competition at its hottest and margins at their tightest, the need for the out-of-home food and drink market to get thoroughly under the skin of its customers, and understand the trends shaping their preferences, in the wider world too, has never been greater,” said Martin.
CGA’s new Insight 2018 conference will spotlight new and developing market patterns, new analytics and new technologies that should already be shaping company strategy, operations and most importantly marketing.
The conference is on Thursday, April 19, at 30 Euston Square Auditorium, London, NW1 2FB. To request a place at this exclusive invitation-only event, go to http://www.cga.co.uk/whats-on/cga-consumer-insight-marketing-conference-2018/
The conference is open to senior executives from across the out-of-home sector – strategists, marketers, insight teams and all those influencing new thinking in their businesses. So thank-you to our sponsors for making it possible: CPL Online, Zonal, Yumpingo, Fishbowl, Red Bull and Odgers Berndtson.
There will be much to debate and discuss, so reserve your place today.
The programme is:
1.30pm – Registration
2.00pm – Welcome from Peter Martin, VP CGA
2.10pm – Are consumers really changing habits?
What does CGA’s new consumer segmentation tell us about the make-up and motivations of the eating and drinking out customer base? Are habits and preferences really evolving? What should you be doing about it?
Rachel Perryman, strategic initiative director, CGA
2.30pm – Driven to drink
How the premiumisation of drink is now central to driving the evolution and quality of the out-of-home experience – and changing the way alcohol itself is marketed. Bosses of two award-winning businesses give their perspectives:
Simon Potts, managing director, The Alchemist
John Gyngell, founder and CEO, North Bar and North Brewing Co
3.00pm – The global approach
How has Red Bull stayed ahead of the game – a study in staying relevant in a fast-moving market.
Claire Oliver, head of casual dining, Red Bull
3.30pm – coffee break
4.00pm – Cultural disruptors
Now technology is changing not just our marketing and operational landscape, but the way we should be thinking about consumers. We talk to tech pioneers already changing the food and drink market.
Jamie Bolding, founder, Jungle Creations
Michael Atkinson, founder, Orderscape
Richard Tallboy, CIO, Wagamama
4.30pm – Brand momentum in a fragmented world
Which brands are winning and losing in the fight for share – and why? What are the secrets of the market’s stalwarts? And how long have the newcomers got to shine? A new Brand Momentum Tracker created by CGA with business transformation consultancy Egremont International may have the answers.
Alex Doman, Egremont International
4.50pm – The changing landscape
How the hospitality maps of GB and its major cities and the make-up of the market has changed over five years – and will change even more?
5.00pm – Meeting the challenges and staying on track
A panel of marketing and insight experts from across the food and drink market assess the impact of changing habits and preferences.
Celia Pronto, chief customer and digital officer, Casual Dining Group
Claudia Nicholls-Magielsen, marketing director, Weight Watchers UK
5.45pm – conference closes, complimentary canapes and drinks afterwards
