Fuelling Foodies: The Food Marketing Podcast

Christmas is nearly here… and if you're waiting until December to start your Christmas marketing, you're already late. The brands that do well at Christmas aren't necessarily the ones spending the most money in December. They're the ones who have spent September, October and November building demand, growing audiences and getting customers ready to buy.But what if your Christmas sales aren't looking quite how you hoped? Is it too late to turn things around? And what should food & drink brands actually be prioritising right now?In Episode 29 of Fuelling Foodies, the team gets together to talk about what REALLY makes the difference between an average festive trading period and a successful one.From gifting pages and bundles to email segmentation, paid ads and the all-important last order dates, we're getting into the opportunities brands could be missing this Christmas. Plus, what happens when the festive rush is over?Because the customers you acquire in Q4 could be your biggest opportunity heading into 2027.You'll hear:Why Christmas marketing needs to start months before DecemberHow seasonal gifting pages and creative gift guides can inspire customers to buyWhy bundles and hampers are a great opportunity to increase average order valueHow to segment your email database between gift buyers and self-purchasersWhat we'd do if Christmas sales were behind target in mid-NovemberHow to approach Meta and Google Ads as competition and acquisition costs increaseThe biggest missed opportunities on food & drink websites during peak seasonHow to keep Christmas customers engaged and turn them into repeat buyers in Q1Why your post-Christmas marketing plan matters just as much as your festive oneThe biggest takeaway?Christmas isn't just about getting customers to buy once. It's about making the most of the entire festive trading period, from the first gift discovery to the next purchase in January.Because if you're only thinking about Christmas sales, you're missing the opportunity to build customer relationships that last well beyond December.LINKS & RESOURCES:Download our free guide: The Email Playbook - How one food & drink brand made £56.7K in email sales (with no extra ad spend!)Need help with your marketing? Book a Strategy Call with KateFollow us at @kwmarketinguk for podcast clips, content, and food & drink marketing tips!If this episode inspired you, subscribe, leave a review, and share it with a fellow founder - we love seeing how you’re fuelling your growth 🔥

Black Friday is nearly here… and somewhere inside a food & drink business right now, someone is suggesting 20% off. Someone else wants 30%. The Meta budget is going up. And everyone is talking about how much revenue they're hoping to generate.But how much of that revenue are you actually going to keep?Because a record-breaking Black Friday means absolutely nothing if you've destroyed your margins to get there.In Episode 28 of Fuelling Foodies, the team got together to talk about what we're REALLY seeing across food & drink brands heading into Black Friday 2026.Should every brand even take part? Is 20% off enough anymore? Should you run a sitewide discount, bundle products together or offer something completely different? And when competition gets expensive, where should your marketing budget actually go?Because the answer isn't automatically “discount more and spend more.”From protecting your margins and premium brand positioning to making better use of the customers you've already paid to acquire, we're getting into what can actually make Black Friday profitable.You'll hear:Whether every food & drink brand should participate in Black FridayWhy you need to understand your margins BEFORE signing off a discountSitewide discounts vs bundles, free delivery and gifts with purchaseHow premium brands can participate without cheapening their positioningWhy your existing customers and email database could be your biggest Black Friday opportunityWhen we'd scale Meta, and when we wouldn'tWhy Google Ads plays a different role during peak buying periodsThe Black Friday mistakes that can eat into your profit, or even steal sales from DecemberWhat we'd prioritise if a brand came to us TWO WEEKS before Black Friday with no planThe biggest takeaway?Your goal shouldn't be to have your busiest day of the year. It should be to have your most PROFITABLE one.And if your email strategy needs some attention before peak season really gets going, download our FREE Email Playbook.LINKS & RESOURCES:Download our free guide: The Email Playbook - How one food & drink brand made £56.7K in email sales (with no extra ad spend!)Need help with your marketing? Book a Strategy Call with KateFollow us at @kwmarketinguk for podcast clips, content, and food & drink marketing tips!If this episode inspired you, subscribe, leave a review, and share it with a fellow founder - we love seeing how you’re fuelling your growth 🔥

Standing out is as a brand hard. Standing out in a crowded confectionery category? Even harder. 👀Walk down the healthier snacking aisle and there’s no shortage of brands telling you they’re better for you. Less sugar. Better ingredients. Healthier choices.But how many of those brands could you actually remember five minutes later?That’s the challenge Wild Thingz is taking on.In Episode 27 of Fuelling Foodies, Kate sits down with Fliss Newland, founder of Wild Thingz, to talk about building a challenger confectionery brand in one of the most competitive categories in food & drink.After years working at Mondelez with some of the biggest names in confectionery, Fliss made the leap from big corporate to building her own brand, taking what was once Veggie Bears, completely rethinking the positioning and relaunching it as Wild Thingz.You'll hear:Why Wild Thingz chose to make “better-for-you” confectionery feel FUN rather than worthy.The challenge of designing and marketing a product for two very different audiences: parents and children.Why being distinctive and memorable matters in a category dominated by huge brands and even bigger budgets.Why getting the biggest retail listing as quickly as possible isn't always the right goal.The expensive TikTok Shop lesson, and why what's working for another brand might not be right for yours.What's next for Wild Thingz as the brand looks towards bigger retail opportunities, community growth and 2027.And perhaps the biggest lesson of all... challenger brands don't need to be everywhere.When you have limited time, budget and resource, every “yes” to one opportunity is a “no” to something else.The job is knowing your customer, understanding where your brand genuinely has an opportunity and focusing your energy on the things that are actually going to move the needle.Because in a category as noisy as confectionery, having a better product isn't enough.People have to remember you.LINKS & RESOURCES:Follow Wild Thingz and explore their wildly delicious sweets.Join the Food Marketing Club for just £57/month - your monthly hub for digital marketing strategies, templates, and supportWant tailored strategy support? Book a Strategy Call with KateFollow @kwmarketinguk for food & drink marketing insights, email tips & digital strategyIf you enjoyed this episode, subscribe, leave a review, and share it with a fellow founder building a challenger brand - we love seeing how you're fuelling your growth 🔥

Heritage is powerful. But it doesn’t mean you can stand still.Some food & drink brands spend years trying to build the kind of heritage Miles Tea & Coffee already has.Generations of history. Loyal customers. Products people have been buying for decades.But that creates a different challenge…How do you take everything people already love about your brand and use it to build the next stage of growth?In Episode 26 of Fuelling Foodies, Kate sits down with John Halls from Miles Tea & Coffee to unpack exactly that.From a hand-coded website in 1998 and a very first online order worth £125, to customers now spending £60, £70, £80 or even £100+ online, Miles has seen the way people buy tea and coffee completely change.And yet, one thing has stayed remarkably consistent: customer loyalty.You'll hear:What genuine heritage actually means commercially, and why being “in it” can make it difficult to see the value you have.Taking a heritage brand online - from Miles' first hand-coded website in 1998 to its modern eCommerce operation.The power of genuinely loyal customersGrowing without losing your identityFinding the next generation of customersThe customer journey beyond the purchase - from packaging and dispatch to email and creating a memorable experience.What's next for MilesAnd perhaps the biggest lesson of all... you don't necessarily need to reinvent a heritage brand. You need to tell more people why it matters.If your food or drink brand has history behind it, the question is: Are you using that history to drive your next stage of growth, or are you simply talking about it?LINKS & RESOURCES:Follow @milesandteacoffee and explore their heritage teas and coffees.Join the Food Marketing Club for just £57/month - your monthly hub for digital marketing strategies, templates, and supportWant tailored strategy support? Book a Strategy Call with KateFollow @kwmarketinguk for food & drink marketing insights, email tips & digital strategyIf you enjoyed this episode, subscribe, leave a review, and share it with a fellow founder building their brand - we love seeing how you're fuelling your growth 🔥

Q4 is here. But before you spend another pound on marketing... are you actually putting your budget in the right places?Meta? Google? Email? Content? Black Friday? More customer acquisition?Because unless you've got an unlimited marketing budget, you can't do everything.In Episode 25 of Fuelling Foodies: The Food Marketing Podcast, the KW Marketing team get around the table to break down where food & drink brands should actually be spending their marketing budget heading into Q4.We're talking about where we'd invest, what we'd fix before increasing ad spend and the biggest money-wasting mistakes we see brands make when peak season panic kicks in.Because more marketing activity doesn't automatically mean more revenue.Here’s what we cover:Meta vs Google vs email: how we think about where to investIf you had £10K to invest in Q4, where should it actually go?Why retention could be your biggest Q4 opportunityWhat to fix before increasing your ad spendWhy your website and customer journey need to be ready before driving more trafficAcquisition vs retention: where should your focus be?Is Black Friday actually worth it for food & drink brands?The biggest Q4 money-wasters we're seeing right nowThis episode is especially useful for food & drink founders who are heading into Q4 with a limited budget and need to make smarter decisions about where to focus.Because you don't necessarily need to spend more.You need to know what's actually going to move the needle.If you're currently planning your Q4 marketing budget, this episode will help you step back, look at the bigger picture and focus on the activity that has the biggest opportunity to drive profitable growth.LINKS & RESOURCES:Download our free guide: The Email Playbook - How one food & drink brand made £56.7K in email sales (with no extra ad spend!)Ready to level up? Join the Food Marketing Club for more marketing strategies and support.Need help with your marketing? Book a Strategy Call with KateSubscribe, share, and leave us a review if this episode made you rethink your Q4 strategy and tag us @kwmarketinguk to join the conversation.