We are excited to feature Britta Ashu, Head of Digital Marketing at Bidfood, in our Speaker Interview series. Britta will be speaking on the topic of B2B Marketing Metrics in one of the upcoming panel discussions at The MarTech Summit London 2024. Her experience and insights on digital strategy in the foodservice industry promise to offer unique perspectives and practical takeaways.
About Bidfood
Bidfood is a leading foodservice provider in the UK, delivering a vast range of food and beverage products to the catering, hospitality, and healthcare sectors. Known for its innovative solutions, Bidfood supplies fresh, frozen, and ambient goods, along with non-food essentials, ensuring a comprehensive service for restaurants, hotels, schools, hospitals, and more. Bidfood empowers businesses to thrive by offering tailored, high-quality products and cutting-edge support, positioning itself as a key partner in the foodservice industry.
Hear From Our Event Director, Catherine
Why we’re excited to have Bidfood at The MarTech Summit London 2024?
Catherine: I’m delighted to have Bidfood featured on this year’s agenda. As a highly respected B2B brand and a leader in digital innovation within the UK’s food service sector, Bidfood is at the forefront of impactful industry advancements. Their presence is especially meaningful to me, as they supply many businesses in my area. I look forward to hearing Britta’s insights on their B2B marketing strategies.
Quick Q&A with Britta
Could you please give us a quick introduction to yourself?
Britta Ashu, Head of Digital Marketing at Bidfood, a wholesaler to the foodservice industry. I’ve worked in F&B marketing for 20 years, digital during the last eight. I grew up in Denmark, lived in London for nearly 30 years now and have two children who remind me regularly that I’m too old, really, for this digital stuff, but I love the pace, the accessibility and the fun it brings to marketing.
Why did you choose to participate in this summit?
In my role, there are two industries I need to understand – one is foodservice, the other is digital marketing. Working in B2B, I’m still of the somewhat controversial view that marketing in this space remains different to B2C – if nothing else because you are not convincing one person to spend their own money but more often deal with groups of stakeholders with varying requirements and levels of influence – so having sessions dedicated to B2B marketing always grabs my attention.
What is the one MarTech decision you made in 2024 that you’re most proud of?
I’d have to say focusing on our people to boost our content. Our chef team have helped us produce fantastic social media content, our Senior Leadership team have contributed to blogs, our experts from around the business have talked to us about what their teams do to help our customers have a seamless journey and a great customer experience – and using digital to showcase these stories has made a significant impact on our digital marketing results.
In your experience at Bidfood, how do you leverage data insights to craft an optimal customer journey, especially in B2B environments where buying cycles tend to be longer and more complex?
I’m not sure we are crafting the journeys – I think we need to understand the journeys our customers take and ensure we provide helpful and engaging content and solutions to make us easy to find and easy to do business with. Data helps us understand customer behaviour, and using tools like A/B testing provides validation for your plans. Data also helps decide budget allocation against online advertising – test small, adapt and refine until your campaign is optimised.
With the rise of digital marketing, how has Bidfood adapted its strategies to maximise customer loyalty across digital channels, and what role does automation or AI play in this?
The foodservice industry doesn’t operate Mon-Fri 9-5 and digital marketing helps us ensure that a chef can engage with us when he or she is winding down at the end of a busy Saturday evening, or sign up for an account before opening for breakfast service. Automation is important in our depot operations to drive, for example, order accuracy which in turn drives customer loyalty, and generative AI we are exploring within marketing but taking small steps until we understand how it can best add value.
What upcoming developments in your industry are you most eager to explore? What trends or shifts in the market are you most looking forward to in the next year, and how do you plan to stay ahead of the curve?
I hope for a year of optimism and stability – hospitality is resilient, but the last few years have thrown many challenges at us all. Although these challenges helped bring digital communications and tools centre-stage, we now need to focus on the more positive aspects of helping our customers grow and providing a top-notch customer experience. We will stay ahead by listening to our customers – through data and conversations – and by allocating a slice of our resources to testing new ideas.
A huge thank you to Britta Ashu for sharing her insights and experiences! Her leadership at Bidfood exemplifies how innovation and customer-centric strategies can drive success in the digital age. Don’t miss her at The MarTech Summit London 2024 for even more valuable insights into B2B marketing and MarTech strategies!
Join Us Now!
We are looking forward to meeting you in London on 12 & 13 November!
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Last updated: October 2024
