Food for Familiarity: Social Commerce Barter Gets a Branded Boost

This eat what you know thing is getting serious. Even if it has evolved to eat who you know, you're still bartering an intangible for a tangible.

There will be those who demand to know how to measure the relative transfer of value, eg, who got the best of this deal. The presumption is, for now, that the individual providing the 'real,' or physical asset wins.

But that may be changing, if it hasnt already. Anyone who can demonstrate that they have provided paying customers to a willing enterprise may be generating value far in excess of the cost of a meal.

The  next dispute is not likely to be about whether this works but to what extent the transfer pricing and value accretion can be specified. Tuck in. JL

Sheila Shayon reports in Brand Channel:

Weight Watchers' pop-up in London doled out its own-brand food for free in exchange for customers spreading the word on their social networks.
It's time to change Eat at Joes to Tweet at Joes. Weight Watchers is the latest brand to open a café where the currency is social media, swapping selfies for a meal just as they’ve done by encouraging users to exchange calories for points.
In a move reminiscent of Kellogg's Tweet Shop in London and the Marc Jacobs New York pop-up that exchanged items for tweets, Facebook posts and Instagram pics, the Weight Watchers pop-up in London doled out its own-brand food for free in exchange for customers spreading the word on their social networks.
“The 'Feel Good Cafe' aims to champion choice, flavour and real food within a weight management arena that is 'swamped with negative connotations and daily contradictory advice on health and nutrition," as Marketing magazine put it about the experiment, which ended on May 23rd.
UK-wide research commissioned by Weight Watchers showed the extent of confusion about dieting, “with over half of UK women (52 per cent) unsure where to begin when contemplating weight loss and only one in ten (8 per cent) feeling confident when it comes to making healthier food choices.”
"Our research reveals that people want to control their weight while still feeling satisfied, and without compromising on flavour and satisfaction,” commented Matt Davis, head of licensing for Weight Watchers UK. “The Feel Good Café is the perfect way to showcase our confidence in our Weight Watchers Foods product range and our pride in our expertise and our heritage.”
The cafe promoted sampling of its products, offering breakfast, lunch and dinner from the brand's 250 items, and has plans to spread nationwide in the future.
"We live in an obesogenic environment where we are surrounded by an abundance of food choices and messages,” noted Zoe Griffiths, head of program and public health, Weight Watchers UK. "Weight Watchers is dedicated to offering a range of tools and support to help people manage this environment and lose and maintain weight in a healthy, sustainable way.
If you're in the UK and missed the Weight Watchers social eatery, don't despair. Another pop-up food-related stunt comes from frozen food brand Birds Eye, which is hosting a series of pop-ups in London, Leeds and Manchester through June, where you can pay your bill with Instagram photos tagged with #BirdsEyeInspirations, a hashtag inspired by its new line of Inspirations meals.
It's all part of a bigger brand campaign from Birds Eye to change Brits' feelings about frozen food. Food for a tweet or a like or a photo – these days, it seems, you are what you tweet.