105. Dig (In)spiration: A deep dive into snacking innovation

On our first episode of Dig In(spiration), we're expanding on last weeks episode with Katie Marston, CMO of Once Upon a Farm. Jess discusses what it really means to create effective innovation in the snacking industry and the instant success the company saw with their latest product launch. 

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What is Dig In?

Welcome to Dig In, the podcast brought to you by the minds at Dig Insights. We're interviewing some of the most inspiring brand professionals in marketing, innovation, and insights to discover the story behind the story of their most exciting innovations.

00;00;04;27 - 00;00;26;24
Jess
Welcome to Dig Inspiration. A quick recap where we dig deeper into the story behind the story. In each of these bite sized episodes, I'll revisit key moments from our incredible guests, highlighting the most inspiring parts of the stories they share. Today, we're dropping a quick reflection on some of the most memorable parts of my talk with Katie Marston at Once Upon a Farm.

00;00;26;26 - 00;00;50;03
Jess
Okay, first point - we needed a drizzle. This is one of my favorite quotes from the conversation, because the team realized that to launch this innovation with the holistic joy that it was meant to provide, it needed to provide that fun factor. Right. But how do you do that? Within the guardrails of the brand, which included a very specific no added sugar.

00;00;50;05 - 00;01;09;10
Jess
And if you heard Katie talk about this story, you know, the mantra that she mentioned, find a way or make one is paramount to an innovation mindset. You know, don't betray your brand ethos. Find a way to get it done. But this, you know, realization we needed a drizzle and we figured out how to do it. Crazy inspiring.

00;01;09;12 - 00;01;37;11
Jess
So the second point is one that we talk about all the time with our clients, and that is incrementality. Think about the snack bar category. It's quite mature at this point. It's highly fragmented. And if you think about what it means to bring new consumers into that category in a new space in the store, it's retail gold. It creates an equity with retail partners where they're going to seek out Once Upon a Farm to deliver continued innovation.

00;01;37;11 - 00;01;57;27
Jess
Right. They become trusted and known for that. And those of you who know Dig, know that we believe that incrementality absolutely must be a success criterion as you're evaluating innovation. This is a great case study that Katie shared on how it becomes the retail selling story and really does disrupt the category. And I'll highlight one final point from the conversation.

00;01;57;29 - 00;02;20;21
Jess
You know, though, there are dozens I could chat about from this talk, honestly, but you can probably tell that I love to go deep on the uncertainties, the vulnerabilities, the human side of our professional lives. It's one of my favorite parts of these interviews, because I think listeners really do crave that authenticity from leaders. And I love how Katie talked about what it meant to be vulnerable, particularly with AI.

00;02;20;22 - 00;02;46;05
Jess
There's just so much going on, it can be overwhelming. As a marketer in particular. So she talked about bringing together a team with different areas of expertise and experimenting, seeing what works right. It's a great way to work through that overwhelm and to have high expectations for your partners. If they're not helping you work through the ambiguity and embrace the power of AI, they're just not the right partners.

00;02;46;07 - 00;03;04;16
Jess
So those are three points that I found to be super memorable and inspiring from the talk. I hope that our listeners find those to be very relevant. And, you know, mentioning of our listeners, we would love to hear your takeaways and your thoughts on the conversation. So please do visit the link in the description. Leave us a comment.

00;03;04;19 - 00;03;08;04
Jess
And, thanks for listening to this Dig Inspiration recap.