Innovative Food Marketing Ideas and Examples (2021/2022)

Why is being aware of innovative food marketing important? Simply put, to compete successfully in an already busy and competitive marketplace, you need to stand out from the crowd.

With each year and each new development, that is becoming harder and harder.

That is why it is important to keep your finger on the pulse and be aware of the different innovations food marketing companies and brands are using.

If you are looking for inspiration for the types of cutting-edge marketing ideas you could use to promote your food and beverages products, this post will help.

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What are the new marketing innovations you should know about?

As noted at the outset, the world of food and drink marketing is evolving just as the technology itself is evolving.

Companies are looking at various techniques and tools to ensure that their products are relevant and appealing to their target customers.

What are some of the most innovative marketing techniques that you should be aware of? We’ve listed 5 that we feel are especially noteworthy below:

Virtual Reality

Although it feels like it has been around for decades, due to the many advancements that have been made in tech since it was first invented, it is now a more viable and powerful tool, that many food and drink companies are making use of innovative marketing ways.

You can use it to develop interactive tours of distilleries, food production factories or chef’s kitchens.

For many foods and drinks brands, their marketing methods focus on getting a customer to try samples, which will then encourage them to buy their products.

Virtual Reality is a great way to give potential customers an interesting experience that they can then associate with your brand.

Scan the Product Not the Packaging

Some brands have started branching out and taking mobile marketing strategies and techniques further.

For instance, while in the past, brands would encourage their target audience to scan a code on packets or other places so that they could benefit from free products or other special offers.

Nowadays, some brands have devised technology that allows customers to scan actual food products.

This is a great way for your brand to understand the popularity of your products without giving them away for free – a technique that was also used often in the past.

Special Codes Lead to Apps and Special Experiences

On the subject of brands using codes. Some have recently made use of QR codes that customers can scan on promotional packages of their products to lead their customers to open special apps.

Once these apps open they are treated to a special experience.

For instance, a soft drinks company in conjunction with a sports event enables the consumer to use a code on the can to access an app that means they can have a virtual selfie taken with one of their favourite sports personalities.

Packaging Being Used in Innovative Ways

With lots of brands turning to more eco-friendly ways of packaging their products, this has led food and drinks companies to think of innovative things that can be done with the cardboard that their food is often presented in.

Many have designed them and given instructions that help customers to transform their boxes into vintage toys or virtual reality headsets (in a similar way to Nintendo’s existing Labo cardboard virtual reality headset or the Google Cardboard idea)

Holographic Displays

One way other marketing companies and brands are getting around the fact that while people are usually looking at their phones throughout the day and using them regularly if they are actually in stores shopping, they might not be.

To make brands and certain promotions stand out, some have invested in high-tech holographic displays that can be placed in-store to draw attention in 3D to a specific product or promotion.

This is a great interactive way that doesn’t require customers to download and install an app for it to reach because customers simply have to enter a store with the holographic display running.

Kit-Kat in Japan used this unique and cool form of marketing to wish exam students good luck

Innovative Ideas For Marketing Your Food Product

We understand that it can be hard to constantly come up with new and effective food marketing strategies, especially as the industry is constantly in flux.

To give you a helping hand, here are some marketing campaign ideas that may be ideal for your food brand.

Highlight and Draw Attention to Your Responsible Sourced Ingredients

Consumers are more aware than ever and care more than ever about what goes into the food products they buy and consume.

If one of your big selling points is that you have ethically and responsibly sourced ingredients, then make sure you highlight this prominently as part of your marketing strategy.

Use Technology to Offer Consumers Insight Into Your Food Production Methods

Whether you utilise AR technology, QR codes or Virtual Reality in some shaper or form, you can help consumers to connect with your food business and products more by offering them special insights into how the food they love (or are going to love) is created.

Many companies in the past have used similar approaches, using codes on packaging to give an interesting insight into the story of main ingredients and how they become the finished product.

Think Beyond Insta Posts

Although Instagram still definitely has its place and is incredibly popular, especially for food, there are various alternatives out there or methods that people use to bolster the efforts of their Instagram marketing campaigns.

For instance, a well-known hamburger chain in America released its comedy HipHop mixtape, tapping into the enduring appeal of HipHop and mixtape culture.

It was considered a huge success. Could you do something like that?

Although you don’t want to distract too far away from the product itself, adding other interests of your target audience into the mix is a great way of attracting more people to your brand and food.

It may also be worth jumping on less saturated social media platforms. Keep an eye on any new up and coming platforms like Tik Tok and research how it can be used to market to your audience.

If You’re Looking For a Food Marketing Agency to Help You With Innovative Marketing Strategies Contact Us Today

Innovative Ideas For Marketing Your Beverage

Following on from the above, we have some great ideas for your drinks marketing strategy.

Are Your Drinks Healthy?

If they are, make sure that is one of the things you lead within any marketing campaign, as health drinks have proven to be very popular in recent years.

Customers are looking for drinks that they can supplement their healthy diet with.

Does Your Drink Have a Unique Taste or Ingredient?

Again, if the answer is yes, then promote it, as you want to make your drinks brand stand out from the many other drinks brands flooding the market.

Offers and Competitions

This could be featured under either heading as a great market campaign idea for both food and beverage companies. Social media is a great place to engage and interact with your customers.

One great way to use platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are by running special competitions and offers.

Especially those that drive customers to purchase your products.

Examples of Innovative Food and Drink Marketing

Taco Bell – Cinco Del Mayo Snapchat Filter

In celebration of Cinco De Mayo, the global chain of Mexican fast-food restaurants, Taco Bell released a special filter that turned Snapchat user’s faces into huge tacos. Around 224 million people are reported to have taken part and used the filter.

Jim Beam – Virtual Reality Story of a Shot

Jim Beam, the American whiskey giant had an innovative way of advertising through virtual reality. It offered customers a glimpse at the life of a shot. As well as quirky and entertaining, it was a great way to show the actual processes involved in making their delicious drink.

RePizza

One of the most bizarre but also ingenious food marketing campaigns we discovered involved restaurants located in the Xintiandi district of Shanghai.

To help reduce the amount of food waste and make sales on leftover ingredients, they joined forced and used all the leftovers to create pizzas that they branded as RePizza.

The options change nightly and various flavours are available.

Greenseed Group is a Food Marketing Agency That Can Help You With Innovative Marketing Strategies and Bringing Your Food Product to a Wider Local and Global Audience Using its Vast Network
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