Posts Tagged ‘food industry’

05.24
2013

By Felicia Wyrick

News

Meet our newest client

We are excited to be working with our newest client, Millard Manufacturing.  Omaha-based Millard is a stainless steel fabricator specializing in custom machinery and equipment for industrial food processing plants. 

We have been impressed by the trust they put it us and the respect they show each other.  (And they’re kind of fun to hang out with after hours, too.)  We’re starting with a logo redesign and will build their marketing initiatives to culminate with a first time presence at PROCESS EXPO in Chicago this November.

Happy to be a part of the Millard team!

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05.18
2012

By Betsy Caszatt

Adfinity Advice

When good words go bad

One of the things our clients expect of us – along with knowing our way around advertising and the food industry – is to put some life into the way we tell their stories and sell their products. A little pizzazz, please.

Advertising is creative and inventive by nature. Along with facts, it tries to inject a bit of brio and a sprinkling of the unexpected among the stainless steel and hydrocolloids. As a copywriter, wordplay is my friend.

Usually.

It’s when words are given passports and head overseas that things get tricky. A short, punchy positioning line like Foodability, which we created for Cargill, is rendered something like “la capacité de la nourriture“ in Paris, “Lebbensmittel-Fahigkeit” in Berlin or “ruoka kyky” in Helsinki (which I kind of like, actually).

Think about the alliteration put into a tag like “Strategy. Smarts. Sizzle!”– only to have it (as well as brevity) get lost in translation at the Mexico border. There, your prospects will see “Estrategia. Inteligente. Chisporroteo.” Let’s not even think about rhymes or acronyms or cultural missteps.

More and more, international marketers and agencies like us will swap word-for-word translations for “transcreation,” where the linguistic provider is given some creative leeway to adapt content in order to pull the right emotional response in another culture. We might contract the usual translation, but run the result by native speakers in the client’s overseas headquarters – or even rely on their corporate and local knowledge in the first place.

There’s a lot riding on (and invested in) a brand. It’s our job to get it through customs without a hitch.

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02.14
2012

By Felicia Wyrick

Adfinity Announcements

Not to worry

Process Expo Lands #1 Ranking!

From the beginning of my marketing career, I’ve always said that THE ONE product that I never wanted to promote was a trade show.

The economy could be in the tank. Our dates could compete with another industry event. The weather might suck. So many factors out of our control can make or break the show’s success.

Remember that nagging advice you were given early in your career –never say never? Well, I had to eat my words and dive right into marketing a trade show when Adfinity was given the tremendous opportunity to help the Food Processing Suppliers Association drive attendance to PROCESS EXPO 2011.

I was frightened and excited at the same time. We could come up with a comprehensive strategy, killer creative, sign up industry-leading exhibitors, offer cutting-edge educational sessions, let people in for free and the event could still bomb.

Yep, you guessed it. The economy was in the tank. Our show was just weeks after our main competitors’ event and the weather in Chicago was, well, weather in Chicago in November. Plus, this was the first time the association had managed the show solo and competing shows got into a major marketing slug fest with us.

But we also had a lot of great things going for us. The FPSA staff proved to be one of the most hardworking and dedicated client teams we’ve ever worked with. Leading food equipment manufacturers signed up early and signed up big. Our media partners stepped up to the plate and helped us heavily blanket all media with our message.

So we forged ahead and tried to keep the panic level in check. Opening day arrived. Exhibitors were in place, booth staff in their matching polo’s. Security stood ready to dutifully scan badges and thwart covert infiltration of non-registered attendees. Bagpipers played to celebrate this much anticipated day. And . . .

By God, people came!

PROCESS EXPO was named the #1 fastest growing trade show in 2011 by Expo Magazine!! Attendance nearly doubled to 12,732. Sponsor revenue growth rate was off the charts—at 576.43 percent. And exhibitor revenue growth rate surged 153.31 percent.

WHEW! Now I can take trade show marketing off the list of things that scare me. Guess I’ll move on to sky diving.

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04.22
2011

By Felicia Wyrick

Adfinity Advice

Right place at the right time.

branding and salesOddly enough, our new office is located in between two competing appliance stores.  Frequently we’ve had folks walk into our shop thinking we were furnishing kitchens, too.  “Whatcha got for ranges?” was probably our favorite inquiry.

Last week we had a “potential client” stop in to see what we had for refrigerators.  Coincidentally, we needed to sell the fridge we brought from our old place since it was too wide to fit through the doorway to our new kitchenette.  SOLD!

Of course, this particular sale didn’t do anything to build our portfolio.  Although we are in the food marketing business and a refrigerator is made to preserve food.  It’s a stretch but maybe there is something there we could use.  Okay, maybe not.

My point is that a sales opportunity can come from anywhere, no matter what kind of business you’re in.  You have to police your brand across all forums – your web site, your trade show booth, even when you talk to prospects.  All of these touch points can spark an interest in doing business with your company or send them next door to the competition.

We’d welcome the opportunity to assess your brand for consistency and effectiveness.  We’re experienced advertising professionals — who can also sell appliances.  Let’s see what we can do with your products.

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06.10
2010

By Betsy Caszatt

News

Food Factoid

56 companies figure into making one can of chicken noodle soup. Wikipedia

Saw online that food marketers – you and I – are the largest non-government employee pool in the United States. The webfact above helps put that into focus. The 56 entities involved in that can of soup include not only the chicken wrangler, vegetable farmers and the Campbell’s conveyor belt operator, but everyone employed at the belt manufacturing plant, a couple processing companies, pasta makers, stainless steel and equipment producers, several truckers, food scientists, font designer, paper mill, label printer, a number of marketing departments, sales teams, purchasing agents – and even a copywriter and art director or two (gotta advertise).

Think of the diversity in this pool – talent, skills, life stories, sizes, shapes. It would make one whale of an employee picnic. Who wants to bring the soup?

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05.18
2010

By Betsy Caszatt

Adfinity Advice

You’ve got some ‘splainin’ to do

How’s that elevator speech coming? The one where you tell what your industry, company, product or service is and does – within the 30 seconds to a minute it takes to get to the 28th floor? Not everyone you run into, especially people you want to turn into customers, knows what you make or what it can do for them.

The food industry is loaded with issues and ripe for questioning. That’s because the ultimate product is destined for someone’s digestive tract. And because you can’t be there to tell your story to every potential customer, you look to outside sources to front for you, in a way, by communicating your story in words and pix. Think how much time and resources are saved if that …mmm, let’s say agency …. is already familiar with the food industry, its ins and outs, its publications and its vocabulary? Just sayin’.

(Ding – 28th Floor). Already?

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