Of one thing is certain, from the crisis, the world of catering will come out completely renewed and able to embrace the future. Digital project manager with the Muse Comunicazione agency and owner of the CnR blog Communication in Catering, Nicoletta Polliotto during the lockdown he oversaw the problems of the sector on a daily basis, providing his readers with information, clarifications on the DPCM, points for discussion and comparison. And now, he sees a future full of prospects.
How did you approach this pandemic and the consequent great difficulty in the restaurant sector with your blog? Have you in any way changed your usual narrative? Have you carried out any particular initiatives to describe this very particular period?
«The pandemic, with its tail in recent days, has left all of us disoriented, transversally in every sector and geographical area, but has hit hard in some product areas, such as tourist accommodation and restaurants. Even art, culture, entertainment. In short, all those areas where conviviality and collective experiences are at the center of the business. And food is certainly one of them.
With our blog, CnR, Communication in catering, we tell restaurateurs how to communicate and relate to guests in the digital age, for more than 10 years. We therefore represent the ideal place in which to discuss and get informed in these moments of real digital acceleration, to acquire and improve skills, strategies and ideas, to reach the needs of their guests in a more targeted way.
Since March 2020, our reaction has been solid and firm: we have continued to write and inform. The editorial line was confirmed and the publication plan was oriented a little more towards the presentation of tools and techniques that could help and support restaurateurs in difficulty. We have amplified the topics regarding new distribution opportunities (food delivery, take-away and outdoor) even though we have been talking about them since 2014. Between May and June 2020 we focused attention on tools and practices to support the reopening and on contactless technology. Since September we have begun to bring many testimonies of resistant projects and entrepreneurs that testify to their way of facing and overcoming the crisis.
Two of our excellences: a constantly updated blog post on government provisions and supports and another, also constantly updated, on institutional events,, continuously postponed or transposed online ".
From your point of view, how do you think the food and catering companies (food companies, but also chefs, restaurants etc) communicated in this period? Are there any initiatives that have particularly impressed you and that you wanted to highlight?
«Communication and marketing immediately became two salient aspects for companies in our sector. But very few have understood it. We have certainly noticed growth and attention to communication activities and the creation of an adequate digital ecosystem especially for food & wine producers and shops. A little less in the world of administration, very focused on complaining and defending one's rights (both sacrosanct elements) and less on experimenting with new organizational and distribution models, on communication to keep in touch with one's guests and customers, on training and on business growth. Of course, there are excellent exceptions, which CnR has voiced through interviews with resistant entrepreneurs. There are beautiful examples, both of loving communication and intriguing strategies, both for branding, and for communicating in an original and authentic way not only one's new offers but also closeness and solidarity. The brands that participate and that demonstrate, also and above all with facts, that people matter, win. "
And how did your users / readers / listeners react? Have you noticed a greater sensitivity to certain issues related to the world of food? In your opinion, has there been an increase in attention to this sector?
«Digital, social media, food delivery, take-away, digital menu but also, as I said, measures and opportunities for support and refreshments and especially phygital events that favor meetings and discussions. These are the most popular themes. We certainly have had an increase in interest in our topics. The media have focused their spotlight on this sector, how not to do it ».
After the pandemic, and when finally we can really talk about a restart, how do you think communication in the food sector will change? Which channels should be privileged and which ones have had their day?
«When we restart, which will be oriented towards a new normality, we will find ourselves faced with a landscape in which it will be impossible to foresee a complete restart, restarting our business from scratch, as if nothing had happened. What the companies have done, told, how they have acted (virtuous or irreverent and arrogant behavior) and how close they will have been to the needs of the guests, even with alternative dishes distribution initiatives and with human and sincere communication, will not be forgotten. It will be the glue with the public and with the "family" of foodies and interlocutors that they will be able to create. Furthermore, what will be done in this couple of years of crisis will have constituted a capital of innovation and knowledge, which will take the restaurant to the next level: finally becoming a contemporary place capable of embracing the future!
Social media cannot be ignored. But the importance of the work on one's distinctive identity and on institutional spaces such as the website was also understood. I think that physical fairs and paper magazines must deeply rethink in order not to be outdated and obsolete ».
Do you have any future projects that you want to anticipate related to your newspaper or your professional life?
“Thanks for this question. We have never stopped even if the world has fallen on top of my agency, as well as the companies we follow and our sector. We have developed training projects, DFMLab, first in live streaming and then on-demand and in asynchronous use.
In my opinion the indigestion of webinars and pseudo training that we have witnessed, on the one hand it cleared the use of certain tools to communicate and get informed, on the other it opened the doors to sometimes questionable proposals both in qualitative and obviously quantitative terms. Upon reopening and gradual recovery, support tools are required that can be used comfortably without impacting on operational tasks. So here are our Digital Food Marketing Base courses, which we launched on the Udemy platform, the most used tool in the world for online training. We have prepared a discount for your readers if they want to train on digital opportunities. Just follow the link! https://bit.ly/DFMLab25_Udemy We plan to continue with Pensieri Balenghi 10-minute video lessons that include a theme and also a video-review on the same topic, every Wednesday at 11, on my youtube channel and not only…
We hope to resume events as soon as possible, even those in presence to talk and work looking into each other's eyes. With these we have learned to smile even with the mask ».
