Artificial intelligence presents new opportunities for specialty food companies to create marketing content quickly and efficiently, according to Aaron Feiger, owner and creative director at Food Court Creative, a marketing and consulting firm focused on mission-driven CPG brands.
For small- and medium-sized food and beverage makers in particular, AI can be a cost-effective tool for generating marketing content that can help them compete against the big budgets of larger companies, he said.
Feiger is scheduled to discuss these topics and more in a workshop called “Taste the Future: AI-Enhanced Marketing for Specialty Food Products,” part of the Scale Up Saturday event for makers at 9 a.m. on Jan. 20, the day before the 2024 Winter Fancy Food Show opens in Las Vegas.
Scale Up Saturday is a day-long event where makers can learn about growth strategies and financing options to inform their business planning. Attendees will learn from experts and network with their peers. Scale Up Saturday pricing and packaging options can be found here.
SFA News Daily recently spoke with Feiger about AI’s potential as a marketing tool in the industry and his plans for the workshop.
What do you see as the biggest opportunities for small food brands for the use of AI in marketing?
I’ve found that with a lot of the CPG brands that I work with, there’s this very real need, especially with social media, to do more, to put out more content, do more marketing—but with smaller budgets than the big, national brands. By leveraging AI, we're able to do a lot more for the brands that we work with, in terms of not only idea generation, but content generation as well.
If it’s a product launch campaign, for example, one of the ways that we use AI is to very quickly visualize campaign ideas. Prior to AI, this might have required a lot of work just to help visualize to a brand manager or a CEO what the idea is; it might involve sketches, storyboarding, a lot of Photoshopping. AI allows us to generate visuals that help represent ideas very quickly.
We’re also using AI to create actual content that can be leveraged for advertising or social media. So, rather than putting together a photo shoot that might show your product in a setting, we’re able to visualize those environments leveraging AI really quickly. And the same with copy. We’re able to generate copy for headlines, or website copy, or blog content, social media posts. AI allows us to create that copy a lot quicker. There still needs to be, in my opinion, a human that sifts through everything and pulls out what works and throw away what doesn’t, but it really speeds up that process.
I’m going to talk about how brands can leverage AI for their own marketing and advertising, and then show some case studies, showing both how we’re using AI for brands, and how other brands that we haven’t worked with are leveraging AI, just to offer a source of inspiration for everybody that comes.
How would you suggest that small food brands take the first steps and dip their toes into the waters of AI?
Just starting to experiment with some of these tools is a great way to get your feet wet. A lot of folks have started to play around with things like ChatGPT, but there are other tools like Midjourney and Runway that might seem a little bit overwhelming at first. But my recommendation is just dive in and play around, just so that you can start to understand what the capabilities are.
I would also encourage them to reach out to folks like me and other agency creatives that are starting to experiment with AI just so they can start to understand what the possibilities are. That’s a big part of what I’m hoping to do with this talk—just inspire people to test out some of these tools, or to reach out and start to have those conversations.
Any other key takeaways that you are hoping that attendees will bring home?
My hope is also to creatively inspire and invigorate the people that are coming to this event, not only by showing them case studies of what other brands are doing, but also by supplying them with some links and different tools they can start to play around with.
A lot of people ask me, "Is AI going to take my job?” Well, no, AI’s not going to take your job, but maybe people that know how to use AI will take your job.
What are you most looking forward to at the Winter Fancy Food Show?
Anytime I go to shows like these, I really just love to see what some of the trends are with brands. From a marketing and advertising perspective, I always love to see what type of creative they’re bringing to the table. I love packaging design as well, but I also just love to see the actual food trends.
Also, I always love to see what are the trends that are able to really, truly make a difference out in the world, whether it’s through sustainability, or mindfulness, or what have you. And, I always just love meeting folks that represent different brands at this event. It’s always a good time just getting together with everyone and networking. Plus, I’m really excited to give this talk to people. I think people are going to get a lot out it.
Related: SFA Releases Specialty Food Consumer Research; Fresh Thyme Market Predicts 2024 Trends.