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Digital Blonde

@digitalblondemoments / digitalblondemoments.tumblr.com

Slightly geeky blonde & big kid with inability to say no to a challenge. Bangs on about social media with particular reference to the hospitality and foodservice industries. Known to have a few too many #BlondeMoments - but learns from every incident. Curator of #LegoDB http://legodb.tumblr.com
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Karen’s SXSW Schedule

Here is a summary of the sessions Karen attended at SXSW along with links to additional resources and articles about each talk. You can ask Karen any questions via Twitter @digitalblonde 

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THURSDAY #SXSWedu Closing Programme

Connected Learning Mimi Ito http://schedule.sxswedu.com/events/event_EDUP991212 Brain-Focused Strategies for Learning and Living Goldie Horn http://schedule.sxswedu.com/events/event_EDUP991266

Education Re-imagined Sal Khan http://schedule.sxswedu.com/events/event_EDUP991198

Links to resources about this session

Links to other talks by the speakers

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FRIDAY #SXSW Interactive

Neuroplasticity and Tech: Why Brands Have to Change http://schedule.sxsw.com/2015/events/event_IAP33111  Dan Machen, Felix Morgan #neurobrand 

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The Art and Science of Shareability http://schedule.sxsw.com/2015/events/event_IAP44541 BuzzFeed #Shareable

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McDonald’s Pitch Session: Restaurant Experience http://schedule.sxsw.com/2015/events/event_IAP996788 #mcdonalds

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SATURDAY #SXSW Interactive

Designing for the Mind http://schedule.sxsw.com/2015/events/event_IAP35861 Nathalie Nahai, Nir Eyal, Roger Dooley #DesignMind

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The Future Role of Tech in Dining and Food http://schedule.sxsw.com/2015/events/event_IAP43201 David Chang, #momotech #SouthBites

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How Food and Drink Drive Urban Planning Today http://schedule.sxsw.com/2015/events/event_IAP43486 Matthew Goodrich, Richard Martin, Sean Brock, Tyler Niess #SouthBites

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SUNDAY #SXSW Interactive

Grocery Wars: The Future of Buying Food http://schedule.sxsw.com/2015/events/event_IAP34122 Addie Broyles, Phil Lempert #SouthBites

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The Rise of the Social Robot http://schedule.sxsw.com/2015/events/event_IAP39489 Alex Reben, Andra Keay, Mark Stephen Meadows, Tiffany Shlain #robots

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AI, Immortality and the Future of Selves http://schedule.sxsw.com/2015/events/event_IAP996157 Martine Rothblatt #futureself

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A Curious Mind: Inspiration for a Creative Life http://schedule.sxsw.com/2015/events/event_IAP43361 Brian Grazer #curiosity

Inc. Presents: The Honest Company http://schedule.sxsw.com/2015/events/event_IAP996690 Brian Lee, Jessica Alba, Lindsay Blakely #honestco

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MONDAY #SXSW Interactive

The Language of Food: A Linguist Reads the Menu http://schedule.sxsw.com/2015/events/event_IAP997435 Dan Jurafsky #LangofFood

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An Interview with Yik Yak's Founders http://schedule.sxsw.com/2015/events/event_IAP44342 Brooks Buffington, Tyler Droll #SXSWYik

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Everything Eric Ries Has Learned Since 2011 http://schedule.sxsw.com/2015/events/event_IAP43059 Eric Ries #Lean

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TUESDAY #SXSW Interactive

PanelPicker Tips for Success http://schedule.sxsw.com/2015/events/event_IAP996944  #sxswpptips

-------------- Better and Faster: Predict Opportunity & Win in 2015 http://schedule.sxsw.com/2015/events/event_IAP996685 Jeremy Gutsche #TrendHunt

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Media, Tech and What's Next? http://schedule.sxsw.com/2015/events/event_IAP996702 Pete Cashmore, Mashable #cashmore

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Moonshots and Reality http://schedule.sxsw.com/2015/events/event_IAP996703  Astro Teller, #Moonshots

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Other things of interest at SXSW GE BBQ Experiment

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McDonald’s as the Food Sponsor

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Robot Petting Zoo

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Robot Potest

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Chef Watson

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Meerkat App

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iBeacons

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Summary TV Coverage

#sxsw#digitalblonde#food#social
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Hospitality Show: Digital Blonde to host expert debate on the role of technology in the dining experience

Karen Fewell, better known as Digital Blonde is set to chair a thought-provoking debate at the Hospitality Show on Tuesday 20th January at 3:15pm. The expert panel session is focused on technology and the dining experience and will explore the current trends when it comes to eating out.

Entitled ‘Should we switch on or switch off at the dining table?’ the session will look at consumer behaviour surrounding eating out and technologies such as the mobile phone, wearables and social media and how this impacts food marketing and customer service strategies.

Some of the best moments in life happen around a table when we are eating with the people we love. Technology has become such a big part of our lives and many businesses feel that to stay ahead they must integrate technology in their hospitality business. But when our lives are so busy and dining is such a special occasion is ‘more technology’ always the answer?

A panel of industry experts including Simon Stenning, Foodservice Strategy Director at Allegra Foodservice, My Ly, Senior Marketing Manager, YO! Sushi and Sarah Gray, Foodservice Channel Marketing Manager at Premier Foods will discuss the role of technology in the dining experience. Panel chair, Karen Fewell, author of forthcoming book #FoodPorn will reveal new research findings around food, psychology and technology and what these mean for food marketing strategies.

#Hospitality Show#hospitality#foodporn#phones#dining
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Bringing together Science, Food and Marketing to Tell a Story

I think it is fair to say I attend my share of events and conferences in the marketing, food and hospitality sectors. I love learning and challenging my own or established thinking. The world has changed a lot in the last 10 years, which has had a huge impact on business, culture and human behavior. Old or safe thinking isn’t necessarily right for the society we currently live in. 

If I was asked to summarise 5 key themes from marketing and business conferences I have attended throughout 2014, they would be:

  • The value of storytelling
  • The availability of data and the insight it gives us
  • The role of neuroscience
  • What makes experiences shareable  
  • The role of technology in our daily lives

As a way of challenging my own thinking and building on key themes from these events, I was keen to do something a little different that would help inform future food marketing projects. I was absolutely delighted when Artizian Catering agreed to join forces as part of their their Foodology® concept.

The Foodology® Event For part one of the experiment boutique caterer Artizian Catering showcased their unique Foodology® concept to a packed room full of guests including leading food writers, consultants and guest of honour Antonio Carluccio. The seven course, fairy tale themed menu, devised by Artizian’s award-winning chef Richard Skinner, saw guests treated to a series of dishes each designed to provoke different emotions, including Hansel and Gretel’s Baked Bread Surprise, Goldilocks and The Three Bears Pea, Anchovy & Cured Ham Porridge and a Cinderella inspired Pumpkin Parfait.

For each course presented to them, guests were asked to rate and record their emotions both before and after tasting the dish. Ian Hanlon, one of the guests and Director at Coverpoint Foodservice Consultants commented:

“It was a fabulously well-orchestrated event. The theme of the evening was a journey through classic children’s fairy tales and, like any good story, the food had an intriguing opening to get the ‘reader’ hooked, a strong main body and a sting in the tail at the end. Richard Skinner’s food was extremely well executed, each of the seven courses playing on a theme, which required all senses to piece together the story. A fun, interesting and interactive evening.”

The Online Survey The data from the Foodology® event was then collated and compared with an online study, where participants who had not been at the dinner recorded their emotions after viewing images of the dishes. To give a further comparison, two separate versions of the online survey were distributed; one displaying only the food images and one showing both the food images and a description of the dish. Presenting the results at Telegraph Media Group I felt honoured to host a panel of such amazing people from the fields of psychology, digital marketing as well as catering and hospitality. On the panel were:

Chef Phil Howard – Two Stars Michelin Guide since 1998 Nathalie Nahai - Web Psychologist and best-selling author of ‘Webs of Influence: The Psychology of Online Persuasion’, Ed Butcher - Head of Online at Square Meal Sam Michel - Director of Chinwag Rob Kurz - Artizian’s Foodologist® Tracey Fairclough – Commercial Director, Artizian

What the experiment found was that the more the user is involved in the story of a dish, the stronger their emotional reaction to it. With the ‘story’ often lost online, a neutral reaction is far more likely.

A scale of one to five measured the strength of participants’ emotions for both the offline tasting event and the online surveys. The results showed that people’s emotional reactions to the dishes were stronger offline, averaging a sore of 3.6. This fell to 2.7 for people viewing only the images online and interestingly, increased to 3.0 for people who view the images accompanied by a description of the dish. Adding descriptions to the online images also increased participants’ feelings of desire, disgust and surprise and made food appear more appetising than the images alone.

The scores suggest that the more consumers can know about and be part of a dish’s story, the stronger they feel towards it. This raises an important point for food marketers.

Ultimately, the research highlighted that there was no substitute for multi-sensory experience of eating food. While images of food receive high levels of engagement online and food with descriptions even more so, feelings and emotions were heightened across the spectrum when it came to actually eating the food. In fact, the study found that online people were more likely (29%) to have a neutral emotional reaction than in the real world, where the score was 11% for the same dish

Nathalie Nahai and her team played a key role in devising the experiment and analysing the findings. Nathalie commented: "Although we all like to think that we're rational, research shows that when it comes to decision-making, our choices stem from emotional impulse - which means that every choice you make is influenced (and enabled) by the way you feel about it.

Now, we all know that the brain is hard-wired to seek pleasurable experiences; but what you may not know is that the dopamine system (which makes us seek pleasure) is much stronger than the opioid system (which makes us feel it), meaning that in general, we seek more than we are satisfied.

Food, like sex, is one of the primary ways in which we satiate our various appetites - and in our recent study we found that indeed, our real-world, offline experience of food and its rituals creates much stronger, more visceral and satisfying emotional responses.”

The panel session was just the start of deeper investigations into the relationship between digital media, food and human behaviour.  We have further data to analyse and new insights to reveal, all of which are designed to offer valuable intelligence for the food, hospitality and marketing industries. If you are interested in knowing more or would like to get involved with further studies then email karen@digitalblondemarketing.com or tfairclough@artizian.co.uk

#smwfoodpsych#foodology#foodporn
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Prestigious Industry Award for Digital Blonde Client Avery UK

We couldn’t be happier for our client Avery UK who recently won ‘Digital Marketing Campaign of the Year’ at the annual BOSS Industry Awards, which recognise and reward excellence in the office supplies industry.

Judges were impressed by Avery’s use of social media in their ‘Creating a Social Connection with Customers’ campaign. The award recognised how, in little more than 12 months, Avery has successfully formed a loyal and engaged online community. Although their adoption of social media was fairly recent, Avery’s digital journey began much earlier than that with Digital Blonde commissioned to carry out extensive research into how consumers viewed and purchased office supplies online. What started as internal research soon became a best practise guide for online retailers in the office supplies industry as Avery shared the findings with their trade customers.

Armed with this new digital research Avery was ready to start utilising social media. With support from Digital Blonde Avery took a ‘test and learn approach’ to their social strategy in order to fully understand the wants and needs of their online consumers and deliver content that would really resonate with them.

As part of the award-winning campaign Avery also sought to involve the online community in driving their business forward and created a successful blogger programme to help accomplish this. We are pleased to report that the Avery Blogger community continues to thrive thanks to the fantastic working partnership in place between Avery and Digital Blonde.

The other crucial element of the campaign was to create reasons for consumers to talk about office supplies online, something which research had shown there was little of. This was achieved through a number of creative and engaging themes including a New Year Detox with Avery, Sharing the love with Avery, Little but Big, Green Office Week and more recently, the 92 Days of Summer.

Working on Avery’s online journey has been a brilliant experience and just goes to show what can be achieved when you take a community-focused approached to digital marketing. Following on from their achievement at the BOSS Awards, the team at Avery plan to continue their award-winning efforts with more digital marketing campaigns planned. Fiona Mills commented:

“We continue to listen to our online community to ensure we fully understand our consumers. This enables us to develop effective digital marketing campaigns that deliver results. We’ve got plenty of ideas and can’t wait to get started on these.”

#boss awards#digital marketing campaign of the year#avery
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How is Social Media Changing Our Emotional Relationship with Food?

Book your FREE ticket here

Digital Blonde will chair a thought-provoking event at the Telegraph Media Group during Social Media Week, exploring how social media is changing our emotional relationship with food.

25th September Free to Attend Social Media Week Panel Discussion #SMWFoodPsych

The event will exclusively reveal the results of a series of psychological experiments from a food tasting event held days earlier and hosted by Artizian Catering, creators of FOODOLOGY®. 

An expert panel chaired by Digital Blonde Karen Fewell, author of forthcoming book #FoodPorn, will discuss and deliberate the findings with the aim of understanding more about how consumers today experience food.  The panel will also explore how the sharing of these experiences in a social media context is changing consumer beliefs around food, eating and health as well as what affect this ultimately has on food purchasing decisions. The event is set to be a lively and thought-provoking occasion. There will be plenty of opportunities to have your say, ask questions and speak to panellists in more detail too.

This unique panel event will appeal to everyone from chefs and caterers to foodies, food brands and marketing and digital teams. In short, anyone interested in understanding how social media is changing our relationship with food should save the date.

On the Panel Nathalie Nahai - The Web Psychologist @TheWebPsych

Sam Michel - Director of Chinwag @ToodlePip

Ed Butcher - Head of Online at Square Meal @SquareMeal

Rob Kurz - Foodologist® @robbiekurz 

Tracey Fairclough - Commercial Director at Artizian Catering  @TAFairclough

Chef – to be announced shortly

Book your FREE ticket here

#smwldn#social media week#food#foodporn#artizian#smwfoodpsych
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7 honest reasons why I want to debate #foodporn at SXSW

I'm among 3,000 people from all over the world who are in the panel picker process to speak at SXSW in Austin, Texas in March 2015. I have proposed to run a session called: “#FoodPorn - distorting our relationship with food?”

Why is this SXSW session so important to me?

  1. I have done a lot of speaking or chairing panel sessions during the last year but I recognise I can learn so much more from other people’s experiences and that is why I don’t just want to stand and present. I want to debate at a SXSW “Core Conversation” session.
  2. I recognise that around the world there are cultural differences surrounding food and eating and therefore the way people share food experiences on social networks. A debate of this nature at a global event like #SXSW will give me further insight into those cultures for ‘#FoodPorn’ book.
  3. I hope that my session attracts others who have been working in the food and social field and that together we can pool research findings.
  4. Jamie Oliver said that “The real food revolution will come from the mobile phone" I would like to discuss how, as a 'digital industry' we can make this possible?
  5. I want to disrupt the #FoodPorn culture. SXSW attracts a varied audience and is an event for sharing skills in psychology, neuroscience, design, programming, marketing and more. These combined skills are needed to disrupt.
  6. I’m keen to gather other people’s perspectives on how we can change the #FoodPorn culture into a genuine love of food and food experiences. One that isn't detrimental to health.
  7. I’m dedicated to discovering how we can use 'social' to help create a society that has a healthy relationship with food. But one blonde Yorkshire lass can’t do this alone. This is an important networking session to find others who share the same passion.

30% of the decision as to whether this event goes ahead is based on community votes. Please pop along to the SXSW Panel Picker and vote for my session:

The Voting Process has now Closed and we are crossing our fingers

#sxsw#texas#austin#foodporn#foodpornbook
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Join us at the Comedy Store

Beat’s ComEDy Gala taking place at the Comedy Store in London’s Leicester Square on Monday 15th September 2014. Driven by Beat volunteer Dave Chawner who will feature in the line up alongside Katherine Ryan, Patrick Monahan, Juliette Burton, Adam Kay and Nat Luurtsema, Beat are looking to create a night that’s a little bit different. The topic of mental health is often the elephant in the room, an issue that’s ignored or unaddressed. In reality, what we need to do is speak, shout from the rooftops and tell people all about them. Eating disorders may claim more lives than any other mental health illness but we know that they’re treatable and recovery is possible. Beat hope that by opening up about these seriously serious illnesses and allowing people to think, learn and even dare to laugh, some of these barriers will be broken down. To find out more and buy your ticket, please go to http://bit.ly/1qwAD4n

#beat#comedy#eating disorders#mental health
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It appears this is the week that event organisers start confirming speakers for Autumn events. We are often asked where we are next speaking about social and food, #foodporn or hospitality. So here you go: BIFM “Ask the Experts” Wednesday 17th September Woburn House, 20 Tavistock Square, London WC1H 9HQ

During Social Media Week

  • Monday 22nd September 9-11am LikeMinds event ->  "Is social media making or breaking the food industry?”. Karen is joining this panel moderated by Square Meal. http://socialmediaweek.org/london/events/social-media-making-breaking-food-industry/
  • Tuesday 23rd September 8.30am-10am Orama TV event --> "How the food industry can benefit from the #foodporn trend". Karen is joining this panel discussion. http://socialmediaweek.org/london/events/art-of-food-insights-marketing-social-media/
  • Thursday 25th September, 9-11am - FREE Digital Blonde Event “How Social is Changing Our Emotional Relationship With Food #SMWFoodPsych” http://socialmediaweek.org/london/events/social-changing-emotional-relationship-food/
  • This event begins with a special food experience evening on Monday 22nd September. Guests will be treated to a wonderful evening of food tasting. Each ‘food tasting’ or ‘food experience’ is also an ‘experiment’ designed to create discussion around “How Social is Changing Our Emotional Relationship With Food”. 
  • Following this, the data and content generated during the event will be analysed and presented by @digitalblonde. This Thursday event will take a presentation and panel format and will build on existing knowledge that Karen Fewell has discovered for her book ‘#FoodPorn’.

Independent Hotel Show Tuesday 21st October, 11am Karen is joining a panel discussion around how hoteliers should use social media to build relationships with their customers. http://www.independenthotelshow.co.uk/page.cfm/action=seminar/libID=1/libEntryID=44/listID=9

Institute of Hospitality Event, Leeds Wed 25th Feb 2015

#foodporn#foodpornbook#food#social media#smwldn#social media week
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Could you Live Below the Line on £1 of food a day for 5 days?

So when I put a chapter on food poverty and digital behavior in my #FoodPornBook I wasn't expecting to actually live below the poverty line. But then I got a call from Unicef and they told me:

  • Every 10 seconds, a child somewhere in the world dies because of malnutrition 
  • One billion children live below the poverty line. They have to survive on less than £1 a day for everything they need
  • Just £5 could provide a severely malnourished child with a week’s supply of life-saving emergency food

They went on to tell me about their #BelowTheLine campaign. The more I listened the more I realised I should take on the challenge and live on £1 a day. I'm actually going to do this ahead of the official #BelowTheLine campaign. I am meant to be setting some kind of example and sharing my experience on the Unicef website. I will be honest, I start this in a couple of weeks and as yet I haven't worked out how I will manage it.

Many of you will know, despite working in the food and catering industry I'm not that good a cook. I'm incredibly lucky, through my work I get to eat at some amazing restaurants and taste wonderful food. I do really appreciate how lucky I am and figure that if I can eat at a restaurant with 3 Michelin Stars I should also experience the opposite extreme.

So from Monday 14th April until Friday 18th April I will be living on a total of £5 of food and drink. I thought about this today as I purchased a diet coke for £1.25. Then my box of organic vegetables was delivered to my door, costing £15. I have spent over 3 times more on food in one day than I will have for 5 days.

So what on earth am I going to eat to make £5 last 5 full days? Twitter friends and chefs I need your help!! Due to food intolerances: fish, gluten, and tomatoes are out. Now remember my lack of creativity and cooking skills and please help . . . 

  • What should I spend my £5 on?
  • Where is the cheapest place to buy the ingredients?
  • How will I turn this into 3 filling meals a day?

Please send me your ideas via Twitter @DigitalBlonde or to Karen@DigitalBlondeMarketing.com and hopefully my Twitter community will help plan my five day menu.

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If you would like to join the Live Below the Line challenge for UNICEF UK. More details are below 28 April - 2 May 2014 www.unicef.org.uk/livebelowtheline #BelowTheLine

#unicef#below the line#£1 challenge#BelowTheLine#Food Poverty
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Where can you hear us speak?

Want to listen to @DigitalBlonde speak over the coming months? We are booked to attend and present at these events:

London Restaurant Network Breakfast Friday 4th April 

Hotelympia 2.30pm Tuesday 29th April More Details Allegra Food Strategy Forum 19th June

#speaking#conference#digitalblonde
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What is #FoodPorn doing for the hospitality industry? Find out at Hotelympia

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Tuesday 29th April, 2.30pm Hotelympia When you look on social networks you will see hundreds of thousands of images posted of food within the last month.  Many people actually take photos and upload to a social network with the hashtag foodporn before they've even take a bite of food.  But what is this doing for the hospitality industry?  Is it a fantastic way of promoting a chef or restaurant? Does it create conversations about dining out?  Or is it spoiling the dining experience for some?  All these views will be explored by @DigitalBlonde and her expert panel at Hotelympia. On the panel

Tom Aikens @TomAikens

Ed Butcher Square Meal @SquareMeal Daniel Doherty Duck& Waffle @DanDoherty_ Jonathan Doughty FCSI and Coverpoint Food @CoverpointFood

Claire Wilson  Le Manoir  @LeManoir

Look forward to seeing you there.

#hotelympia#foodporn#tom aikens#dan doherty#duck and waffle#jonathan doughty#ed butcher#square meal#Le Manoir#Claire Wilson#fcsi#coverpointfood
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