Although the shortest month, February 2021 has been a month of contrast. We started the month with thick snow and freezing temperatures and now the signs of spring are erupting everywhere.
It’s been another month of lockdown and surviving the WFH and home-schooling juggle, but the rapid roll out of vaccines has brought hope to many. It’s seems like there’s light at the end of the tunnel.
What’s going on?
Here at Sharp Relations, we’ve continued to work from home, zooming our way through the day from our respective kitchen tables with clients, journalists, picture editors, influencers and each other. We have noticed the sense of hope building as we have welcomed several new clients to the family. There’s suddenly lots of plans to launch new products and brand building strategies as we begin to emerge from lockdown.
We are delighted to be working with the wonderful Paul Babra and the launch of his new Indian Food brand KARARA (which means ‘spicy’). Paul is a well known chef and philanthropist in the local community, much loved for his incredibly aromatic dishes, his work with FareShare and his enthusiastic, KARARA zest for life!
It has been a busy month for Macknade as the team there successfully launched a cook-at-home recipe box in time for Valentine’s Day and have been sharing their tips for shopping sustainably. Produced in Kent has been campaigning for consumers to Change One Thing as it becomes ever more crucial to consider the impact of our choices on the environment.
OGGS® has been busy creating sustainable recipes for every occasion with its OGGS® Egg Alternative Aquafaba, we’ve got recipes for Hot Cross Buns for Easter and lots of tasty picnic treats lined up for summer. Sobersauce is championing nolo beers, with an incredible Discovery Box for the health conscious and active demographic, so there’s no need to miss out on a nice cold beer after that epic bike ride! Tempeh Meades has been tantalising our tastebuds with some gorgeous images of its plant based recipes, if you haven’t tried tempeh, give it a go, its surprisingly versatile.
Insights
We’ve been learning about recipe writing this month, there’s so much more to getting it right than a few ingredients and a method! We’ve been to loads of FSB events and sat on several training sessions about how we can incorporate SEO, link-building and other digital marketing tricks into our PR work and content creation. We’ve been trialling some (key) message testing via Facebook ads and seeing how we might be able to use this to really hone our demographics for clients who like that level of detail.
Day-to-day we are currently liaising with journalists about summer, we’re all about the picnics at the moment! If you have a brand suitable for Summer having some really good quality and seasonal images helps to secure content in the long lead food magazines. It is a bit peculiar to get your head around thinking about summer imagery while snow is on the ground and vice versa but being prepared really makes the difference in terms of where we see the content featured.
If it’s not summer, then we’re pushing out all things Easter. And there’s even the still opportunities for the final push for Mother’s Day.
Highlights
Published – This month AJ shared the five best ways to build your brand in an article featured in Fine Food Digest. She outlines the importance of having a communications strategy with an actionable plan. If you have a copy, check it out on page 41.
An Award – Sharp Relations has also recently been commended as a finalist in the South EastFSB Awards. We are really looking forward to celebrating this (no doubt with cake) when we can get back together in the office.
Passing it On – AJ was also thrilled to be invited to conduct a PR Strategy training session for members of SELEP (South East Local Enterprise Partnership) project Buy Local South East on 24th of February.
PR Opportunities
“NatWest and Getty Images are working together to create a more realistic visual representation of female entrepreneurs. Nominate a female business owner – or yourself, if you are one – to help NatWest and Getty Images create a truly representative library of images that champions successful female entrepreneurship.”
Great Taste Awards – There’s still time to enter but only a few days. You won’t need to post your product at this point, just enter online and follow the instructions. Applications close 1st of March at 12-noon. You can enter anything that tastes good from drinks, products, ready meals, ingredients, beers, juices, sweets, if it tastes great….. Enter Here
Sharpen Your Brand
Are you feeling lost in a marketing forest? Then, please do book a Sharpen Your Brand marketing communications session and we’ll help you see the wood from the trees. We don’t just health check your marketing plan; we advise you on the best next steps. We can help you to identify your marketing objectives, make recommendations for where to spend your time and budget and you’ll leave feeling confident about your action plan.
To book, click here.
Sign up to the Sharpen Your Brand newsletter here.
Finally…Get Voting
This week sees the closing date for voting in the Taste Kent Awards, you have until midnight on 28th February to vote for your favourite Kent food and drink businesses. This is a fantastic (and free) way of showing support and recognition to our local food and drink businesses, so get voting.
We will be leaping into a Karara March with a spring in our step.
Stay safe,
Claire
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