Brand is Everything: Founder Kate Prince on Building Ancient+Brave

Across the Western world, the Carbonated Soft Drinks category is experiencing real transformation… thanks to the sugar backlash, the resulting sugar tax and the fight against plastic. I recently heard that the majority of fizzy soft drinks sold in the supermarkets now contain no or low amounts of added sugar, which really surprised me. For a category that has been built on the white stuff for over 100 years, that’s a pretty big change. It goes without saying that it has been a difficult few years for some of the big global soft drink brands, but the other side of that coin is that there are plenty of exciting emerging brands taking advantage of the move towards Healthier and Natural. They and creating new category sub segments some real #transformational growth. Think real fruit sodas, no added sugar seltzers, and even the more niche Kombuchas, kefir waters, sparkling coconut waters…. If you live in the UK, you probably recognise the very cool British soft drinks brand Dalston’s soda, whose mission is to put real ingredients back at the heart of soft drinks. I think their range of highly distinctive, brightly coloured metallic cans with the big standout D for Dalstons on the front is a future brand icon – just the right mix of cool yet accessible to the mass market.  Together with great drinks made with real fruit, low sugar, local ingredients and even distilled botanicals for serious amount of great flavour, Dalston’s is one to watch. Dan Broughton, CEO Dalstons I spoke to Dan Broughton, CEO and Co-Founder to find out how he and his team is setting the brand up for success. If you enjoy this episode, it would be really helpful if you REVIEW it on iTunes or Spotify & SHARE it on your social media

8 Syys 202042min

The case study in Category transformation that is on everyone’s lips right now is Oatly. But did you know that Oatly has been around for 30 years in the Dairy Alternatives Category? It’s only really in the past 5 years that something has changed massively, at least in the UK market. In 2016, Oatly’s UK revenue was around £6M, but this year they are looking at hitting around £75M! If you want to know how they did this, then you’re in luck! We spoke to Ishen Paran, UK Country Manager who told us about the 5 levers that he and the Oatly UK team have pulled to drive this incredible growth… #oatmilk #oatly #transformationalgrowth #brandgrowthheroes #plantbased If you enjoy this episode, it would be really helpful if you REVIEW it on iTunes or Spotify & SHARE it on your social media

19 Elo 202044min

Mark Mulhern is a Brand Performance Coach with a spectacular CV in brand advertising and through-the-line Marketing investment. He’s worked agency-side for the past 20+ years managing advertising accounts worth £100M of pounds and dollars, for clients such as Mars, Unilever, McDonalds, Amazon, Virgin and Sainsbury’s.If you’ve listened to the first few episodes of Series 1 of Brand Growth Heroes, you’ll know that one of the New 4Ps of Transformational Growth is PROCESS – how insurgent brands define and attack challenges differently to incumbent or less successful brands. One of these challenges is managing the transition of how you approach your MARKETING INVESTMENT as a start-up, vs. how you think about it and deliver it as an emerging brand with a serious growth trajectory. If you’ve been pootering along nicely with sampling and social media, but recognise that the time has come to get your head around what a more strategic approach looks like, then this episode is for you.If you enjoy this episode, it would be really helpful if you REVIEW it on iTunes or Spotify & SHARE it on your social media

12 Elo 202043min

How many of us eat chocolate or other cocoa-based products without realising – and this is deadly serious – that we could be unwittingly funding child labour and even child slavery in West Africa?Almost a year ago, we interviewed Ben Greensmith, the UK country manager of Tony’s Chocolonely, and we heard how this amazing company is trying to change the cocoa industry and eradicate child labour and childhood slavery. If you’d like to listen to this episode, look for Series 1 Episode 8 (SE1Ep8) on your podcast player. A month or so ago, I learned that the level of child labour in West African cocoa farms had actually increased over the past 10 years, which just really shocked and saddened me.In this special catch-up episode, I asked Ben to bring us up to speed with the situation in West Africa, as well as share with us how Tony’s Chocolonely is doing in the U.K. market since its launch.If you enjoy this episode, it would be really helpful if you REVIEW it on iTunes or Spotify & SHARE it on your social mediaS2EP12 Timestamps to follow.

21 Heinä 202030min

It’s tough times out there for many brands. Even for the lucky ones who are seeing an increase in sales due to the current situation, future plans are up in the air and investment in growth is on pause, with so much depending on how things pan out over the next few months.We wanted to find out what’s happening in the world of investment & funding for brands with big growth plans: have most put their investment journeys on hold? What should you do if you were planning to raise money this year? In this episode we’re talking to Yasha Estraikh, who’s an Associate Partner at Piper, the investment partner of choice for brands such as Propercorn, Mindful Chef and many more you’ll recognise. Yasha is in charge of Brand and Customer Research and Insight, and he helps brands keep their customer at the centre of everything they do.I learnt SO much from this hour with Yasha – not only that most sources of investment are focusing on their current portfolios at the moment, but tons about how funding and investment for growing brands works in general. If you have ever really wanted to understand how it all works, you need to listen to this!If you enjoy this episode, it would be really helpful if you REVIEW it on iTunes & SHARE it on your social media!S2EP11 Timestamps to follow.

9 Kesä 20201h 8min

Buymie was conceived when Founder Devan Hughes learned that the £9bn online retail grocery industry in UK & Irl, was loosing over £300M per year…and he reckoned it was therefore ripe for disruption.Buymie is a mobile-first, on-demand grocery delivery platform enabling consumers to order any grocery or household item from local stores using their mobile device, and get them delivered in as little as 1 hour.The Buymie platform connect customers, via the app, to a fully vetted and trained crowd sourced personal shopper network.Listen to Devan share the inside track on the super-charged growth that Buymie has seen over the past 18 months, how they’ve just received £2.2M in funding, and how they are now the online delivery platform for Lidl Ireland! An episode not to be missed!Buymie.euDevan is the CEO and Co-Founder of Same day grocery e-commerce platform Buymie. Devan holds a degree in Finance from the National College of Ireland, and has worked in the start-up sector for most of his career. A guest lecturer in some of Europe’s best Business Schools, Devan is recognised as one of Europe’s foremost thought leaders in the fields of grocery e-commerce, platform economics and architecture.If you enjoy this episode, it would be really helpful if you REVIEW it on iTunes & SHARE it on your social media!S2EP10 Timestamps to follow.

18 Touko 202032min

In Episode 5of Series 1, we spoke to Sam Dennigan, founder of insurgent frozen brand STRONG ROOTS, which offers tasty plant-based food designed for busy lives.Sam promised to come back on the show and update us on how their impending launch in the USA went…which he does in this episode.Shortly after we recorded our update, Covid 19 hit, so we recorded a further section on how the current crisis has effected the Strong Roots business.An episode not to be missed!strongroots.com Instagram: Strong Roots Irl Strong Roots UK Strong Roots USAIf you enjoy this episode, it would be really helpful if you REVIEW it on iTunes & SHARE it on your social media!S2EP9 Timestamps to follow.

13 Touko 202038min

We’re going to spend the next few episodes exploring how growing Food & Bev. businesses are coping with the current crisis, the kind of help they need, and some of the resources available to help them. In this episode we’re talking to Jason Gibb, one of the co-founders of Bread & Jam. Once an annual business festival for Food & Beverage entrepreneurs, now Bread & Jam is helping several hundred companies a week, joining them from as far away as Australia!From evening workshops to morning socials, entrepreneurs can sign up for free and paid events that will build key skills, their industry network and their confidence.Bread & Jam was borne from the success of Jason’s online community, The FoodHub, which is the biggest community of food & drink entrepreneurs in Europe Jason also has his own plant-based food start-up, called Unruly Burger https://www.eatunruly.com/Listen to Jason on why he started Bread & Jam, and how it works:Bread & JamIf you enjoy this episode, it would be really helpful if you REVIEW it on iTunes & SHARE it on your social media!S2EP8 Timestamps to follow.

7 Touko 202015min