Today you are listening to episode 180 with Alexander Zox, New Business Development Lead and Dianna Rogers, Director of Account Services and New Business Development at BrandFirst Creative Agency.
BrandFirst Creative Agency specializes in branding food companies form confections to food tech. They were the main creative agency behind the Alt Protein Show and I bumped into them at Expo West
This episode was recorded a bit earlier, but the main reason was that I wanted to coincide with BrandFirst’s newest podcast, Innovativeness. You can find that in the show notes with their first episode with Victor Santos Director of the Cellular Meat, at JUST who I met at the Cultured Meat Symposium.
This podcast is a great overview of the landscape and language in the food tech world. We talk a lot about how the current food tech players are communicating right now, and how language is a huge thing to consider when communicating something new.
About Dianna
As Director of Brand Strategy and New Business, Dianna is a strategic thinker with over 12 years of experience in developing cohesive brand experiences. Driven and detail-oriented, Dianna is inquisitive and analytical by nature with an ability to think creatively and find unconventional solutions to tough challenges. She is also a multi-tasker who is responsible for account leadership, project management and new business initiatives.
About Alex
As the Strategic and New Business development lead at Brand First Alex tries to focus on forward thinking and finding unique and successful solutions for our clients. He grew up in NYC among a family of fine artists. He would watch his father, an abstract painter, and mother, a textile designer, constantly create and debate creativity. His love of all things culinary and his passion for science all help to connect him to his passion for communicating with some of the industry’s leading innovators. His ability to challenge the conventional and push the boundaries leads to different perspectives that can yield new and exciting results, both conversationally and in a practical sense.
Show Notes
Expo West
Expo West Brand First Article
Sprouted ventures
What do you say in a sentence or less?: Dianna: I work for a branding agency. We work on naming and branding and packaging for upcoming brands. Alex: I work for a design studio but research what is going on in the food space
Alternative Protein Show
Brand First specializes in: Food and Beverage, Healthcare, Confections and others. It’s a 30-year-old company
We started with working with M and M’s Mars and went from there
Olivia Fox Cabane
We started podcasting in December. (Eventually, we created our own podcast)
Abbott’s Butcher
Cow with the Cape Beyond Meat
Impossible Foods cartoon
Elmhurst
Milkadamia
Good Catch
Silk Rebrand
Hippeas
Smashmallow
Instagram
Describe the steps it took to get to where you are today: Diana: In Brand First, I started as a proof reader and copy writer. I evolved account manager and then business development
Alex and I actually worked together in the entertaiDiscussionnment industry
Alex: My Father was a painter, my mother was a textile designer
Sara Lawrence College: Studied Liberal Arts
Alsace Restaurant: Alsace in between France and Germany
How was the booking agency?: Cover bands have big egos
Science Needs a platform
JUST- Victor Santo – Moderated a panel with him
Cellular Agriculture
CRISPR
GMO
Sally Squires
Vegan baggage word
Adding eggs and calling it plant-based
What is the biggest challenge the food industry is trying to face: plastics and packaging
General Mills – Regenerative Agriculture
Joseph Robertson
Paul Shapiro’s book Clean Meat
War and Peace
Modern Meadows
Favorite Book: Thomas Monds Budden Brooks – a quarter of the book is depicting a meal
Kitchen Confidential
Michael Pollan’s Book How to Change Your Mind
Michael Pollan’s Botany of Desire
BrandFirstnj.com
Range Me
LinkedIn: Dianna Rogers and Alexander Zox
Food Marketing Institute Emerge