Expert Feature
Annabel Archer
Communications Manager, Mars Food Australia
Annabel is a multi-skilled digital, social and content marketer, with over 13 years experience, holding roles across various industries both agency and client-side. She is also a foodie and decided to immerse herself fully in the food industry more recently when she joined the marketing team at Mars Food Australia.
At Tasty Content, we're very excited about bringing together some of the smartest minds from the food and content industries to share a broad range of perspectives on how marketing can be used to make a business impact, while making our world more sustainable too.
Let's start light! What's your absolute favourite dish and why?
Definitely a good sashimi poke bowl. A light, zingy, fresh dish, packed with protein and vegies and all the textures - creamy, crunchy, saucy, and delicious!
Could you tell us a little about your experience in the industry?
I have spent a lot of my career in the digital and social space. I began agency side at Ogilvy leaving as a Digital Strategist to make the move client-side. I spent a good chunk of my career at Coca-Cola developing marketing communications campaigns and unsurprisingly a lot of them revolved around food and mealtimes. I am a foodie at heart and last year I made the decision to immerse myself in all things food, working at Mars.
If you had $50,000 to drive newsletter sign-ups for your own business, where would you invest it?
Mobile Pop Ups: "10% off your order when you sign up to our newsletter" - I fall for that one every time!
What do you think is the biggest challenge food businesses face today, and how could marketing be used to address it?
Increasing competition. Consumers are faced with so many choices these days. Keeping up with the trends and really understanding your consumer's needs and wants has never been more important.
What's the most significant change you would like to see in our industry to help make our world more sustainable?
Education on recycling. Lots of businesses are taking the important steps to create their packaging from recycled materials and to make their packaging recyclable but I don't think enough people know or understand what they can put in the recycling bin. More communication is required around this.
Where do you go for your industry trends and inspiration?
We are fortunate enough to have a great insights team at Mars that regularly share innovation and inspiration, however I don't think you can go past spending a few hours at the supermarket, reading café menus and following industry folk on socials. Immersing yourself in the foodie world will always trump reading an article.
What's the best content marketing you've come across recently?
I believe TikTok has really set the bar for food content. The how-to mechanic and interesting creations, teamed with some "food porn" editing has resulted in some seriously drool-worthy content.
Know someone who should be featured?
We're always looking to meet new industry leaders.