Should going viral be your measure of success? | BOL Foods

In this episode of Connected Thinking, Shannon Farmer, our Senior Campaign Manager, sits down with Toni Ehrnreich, Head of Marketing at BOL Foods - a plant-powered food brand on a mission to create tasty, nutritious meals without compromise.

With over seven years’ experience in FMCG challenger brands, Toni has played a key role in shifting BOL Foods from a product-first approach to a more aspirational, lifestyle-led way of marketing.

Together they chat about:

• Why virality shouldn't be your only measure of success
• The role of community management in safeguarding your brand
• How to build an impactful B2C LinkedIn strategy
• Why the comments section is the biggest goldmine for challenger brands

Stay tuned for more episodes of Connected Thinking, our series of chats with standout voices from the world of marketing, where we unpack what’s trending, what’s shifting, and what’s coming next...

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to Connected Thinking, our series of chats with standout voices from the world of marketing, where we unpack what's trending, what's shifting and what's coming next. I'm Shannon, your host and senior campaign manager at Scene Connects, and today I'm joined by Tony Ermrai, Head of Marketing at Bowl Foods with over seven years of experience working for FMCG Challenger brands. Bowl stands for Bring on Life and is a plant-powered food brand on a mission to create tasty, nutritious meals without compromise. So welcome Tony. Thank you for having me. To kick things off, Bowl's organic content has shifted from being largely product-led to more aspirational, lifestyle-driven storytelling. What prompted this pivot and what key changes have you noticed in how your audience engages with your content as a result?

SPEAKER_00 0:40

Yeah, I mean I think it's really interesting because social, the landscape of social has definitely evolved a lot. So from back in the day, I actually started off as a content creator and it was enough really as a brand to put out a very aesthetic grid full of product shots and that really did sort of generate the engagement. But now we've clearly seen the shift. There's a lot shorter attention spans, there's a much higher demand for video content. But first and foremost, it's a social platform, and you need to be part of those genuine sort of cultural moments and social conversations. So we as a team have definitely pivoted away from these kind of ascetic grids that are very kind of product heavy and actually tried to tap into what are the things that our audience are talking about on social, what are the things that they are using the platform for, and almost using our products as part of that storytelling where we keep our kind of consumer as the hero. So I guess to give an example of that, rather than just say a product like our power soups, for example, and just a static shot where we talk about it's high protein, high fibre, we know that our audience are engaging with trends like fiber maxing and actually creating a more educational piece of content around how to hit your fibre goals and using our products as part of kind of solution to their problem. We have found that that has really kind of generated um much more engagement and reach than we were previously, where it was a more kind of classically advertising-led um content.

SPEAKER_01 2:03

Do you feel like when you started doing that, you saw a massive spike in engagement or was it something that you felt like developed over time?

SPEAKER_00 2:09

Instagram is our kind of core channel. Um, but it takes time, I think, for the algorithm to almost reset and figure out who are the people who are genuinely engaging with your content and then sort of serving it to them. But we've really stuck to that consistency. And I think one of the things that we've also learned is when we started that pivot in our content strategy was just to be really consistent with our posting times and almost just simplify things really down to simple testing so that we could learn. Um, but through that, definitely it's over time. We've now built up that follower growth and we've built up those kind of engagement rates and commenting and also shares, which is something that we never previously saw. But it's been amazing to feel like our community are not only enjoying the content that we're putting out there, but also sharing it with their community as well. Amazing. That's what you want, really, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 2:54

Other people start talking about you, follow the page. So we know earlier this year you launched a blueberry power shake and you had a standard activation like the Glastow pop-up and the X Al announcement. Um, what inspired these ideas and how did you turn them into organic traction on social?

SPEAKER_00 3:07

So I'm really glad you've seen that, by the way. Um, so blueberry was a flavor we're really excited about. There's no other kind of blueberry shake in the sort of protein drink or the nutritionally complete meal space in the UK where we're operating. And we knew it had that kind of social, um, worthy kind of flavor edge to it. But um really it just started off with, you know, what is kind of happening around the moment that it was launching. So it was summertime, you know, what are our audience doing? What are they kind of talking about? What do they care about at this moment in festivals is really kind of you're getting that momentum, and especially with a festival like Gastonbury, there's such like a FOMO around it, who got a ticket, who didn't get a ticket. So we knew that there's kind of conversation around that. And it was really just a simple connection of Glastonberry and Berry. And there was kind of a moment to tap into that directly tapped into the use for this product. So for our power shake, you know, it's a meal on the go, it's made with real ingredients, it's perfect when you don't have time to cook something, or you know, you want break uh a breakfast, but you actually want to grab something healthy, you don't want to grab like sort of a really indulgent croissant. So, you know, festival goers going to the festival, jumping on the tube, like are gonna need something to keep them going for the journey, or maybe they miss breakfast when they're trying to catch their coach or whatever. So it was a perfect moment to kind of offer our power shake and um sort of tap into that Glastonbury sort of uh fervor.

SPEAKER_01 4:24

Yeah, perfect timing as well. So Instagram and TikTok are the obvious priorities for many FMCG brands, but we've also seen bowl stand out on LinkedIn and particularly with thought leadership, brand announcements, and employee-driven content, which I absolutely love by the way. I feel like more brands should definitely be doing more of that. Um, what advice would you give to consumer brands looking to build a meaningful LinkedIn strategy?

SPEAKER_00 4:44

So I think the first place to start really, and and actually I will say that's a that's another kind of part of our channel mix that we we did re-look at because previously we have used LinkedIn almost as a kind of personal PR machine where we've just used it to shout out um sort of key brand wins like we're now stopped in a new retailer or we've got this new product. But I think really starting off with quite a clear understanding of who is this audience on LinkedIn that you're trying to engage with. You know, is it retailers or prospective retailers that you want to get your brand in front of to potentially list you? Is it talent that you're looking to recruit in the company? Is it um just general sort of professionals that you're, you know, as consumers that you want to engage with your brand? And, you know, there may be many audience groups that you're looking to engage with, but I think starting there and being really clear on that and what your objectives are, um, and then thinking about what is that content that they genuinely enjoy um engaging with already and you know, why are they on the platform? So I guess to give an example, if you are using LinkedIn as a place to recruit talent and excite them about joining your company, you could just put out a post that says, um, you know, we're a great place to work, or you could do something into a bit more of that storytelling and feature an employee in a sort of day-in-the-life piece of content and show them kind of navigating a day in their job and and them kind of interacting and showing a bit of that, bring a bit of that sort of culture to life. So I think it's really just identifying that intersection of who are the people that you're trying to reach, what is the message that you want them to know, and how can you almost sneak that message in within a format that um already engages with the stuff that they want to want to watch or want to read.

SPEAKER_01 6:20

Yeah, definitely. I also feel like when you're looking for a job, one of the first things, well, this is what I would personally do, is go to their social media because you do see more of that like day-in-the-life content, like come on a day in the life with our brand manager, for example, and then you get an insight into the office. What are the people like? You know, if it's somewhere you want to work, and I think it definitely encourages more people to want to work there to apply for jobs. So it's definitely a clever uh strategy that I think more people should be tapping into.

SPEAKER_00 6:44

And actually, it was the thing that made me want to join Bolve, like a couple of years ago, which was going onto their socials, and it was just was so clearly such a team-driven, passionate um culture that you just sort of wanted to be a part of it. So completely right.

SPEAKER_01 6:58

Yeah, really nice, working very well. Um, online conversations around ultra-processed foods can be sensitive with influencers and consumers quick to critique ingredients. I think we've probably all been there. Um, how do you approach influencer partnerships to establish relevance and authority in that space?

SPEAKER_00 7:13

Yeah, really good question. I think bore ball, I mean it it's a it's a tricky one to navigate because for us as a brand, we're all about making it easy for busy people to eat well. And, you know, with us, everything that we make is pretty much high protein, high fibre. It's made with real sort of plant-powered ingredients. And naturally, to kind of build credibility in that, we want to work with nutritionists or people who are kind of leaders in in food conversations and health conversations to help us kind of drive that credibility. So we prefer to work with um qualified people who understand the nuances of nutrition, who represent a kind of balanced, moderate, moderate view, you know, not people who are um pushing fads or extremes, but you know, ultimately we're products made for real life, and real life isn't perfect. And, you know, you strive for balance, you strive to sort of eat um real ingredients most of the time, but we know that sometimes life gets busy or there's just eating for pleasure, and bring on life is about embracing all of those moments. We do find because we are a very clean ingredient deck brand, that we do get picked up by sort of those supermarket influencers who kind of go in and call out brands for using artificial ingredients, and that we we're fortunate that we actually kind of um benefit from that in a way because our profile is clean, but nonetheless, we're not about making people feel bad for the food choices that they make. We're just about making it easier to eat well. Um, and we really want to kind of maintain that positive um nutrition space versus a kind of negative don't eat that um space.

SPEAKER_01 8:41

Do you have anything in place that safeguards your brand if someone were to just pick up one of your products and decide they wanted to spin a negative narrative on it for any reason?

SPEAKER_00 8:49

For us, it's about being all over our community management. Being honest, we don't have a sort of strict, rigorous safeguarding process. I think you know we're still in that kind of challenger brand um uh life stage, but we are very on it with our community management. And so when something does happen, it does occasionally happen, we've had it before with our Power Shake range, where someone has said something like, you know, these full of sugar, but they're they're actually naturally low sugar and have no added sugar, so it's just inaccurate. Um the ultimately our response is to just follow up with a message, um, you know, always in a kind of positive and and friendly way, but gently kind of correcting that that isn't the case and just you know, hoping that if that content gets traction. And I think a lot of the time when someone is calling out a brand and saying that something's really bad about it, you do just kind of go to the comments for the drama. Um and normally um I think you'll be looking for the brand in question to make a response. So, you know, as long as we're quick on it and and and um uh quadangelidia does an amazing job of of really being on it with the community management, um, then that's kind of our our way of making sure that we make sure the true messages are coming through. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:56

I think as well, you kind of have a responsibility to do that as a brand, to protect yourselves in the sense of people go into the comments for the drama. You don't want to fuel any like fake conversation. So just straight away being like, oh, actually like this is the case in a nice way, people will think, oh, don't need to look at that anymore. Like I've got my answer and it's all done.

SPEAKER_00 10:12

Yeah, definitely. And I think it never it depends, I guess, what sort of brand identity you have, and if you're a little bit more kind of rebellious um in in your sort of tone of voice, and I I I think there are brands that get away with it, but generally it doesn't feel like it comes off that well when you are aggressive in your tone of voice or overly defensive. It feels like kill with kindness always just feels like the way forward.

SPEAKER_01 10:35

Yeah, definitely. Do you feel like you see a lot of organic content, like you said about the supermarket influencers? That's really interesting. I definitely see more of that online now. Would you say you get a lot of like organic tagging on your socials or people talking about the brand without you having done like an influencer campaign because of that reason? Like they're picking you up because they've noticed it is a clean brand. It's something they would encourage people to get involved in. Like you can have a healthy meal on the go without having to spend hours at home cooking in your kitchen.

SPEAKER_00 11:01

Yeah, absolutely. There are sort of influencers out there like Tonic Health and Sophie Morris is based in Ireland, and we've have just seen that kind of organic traction with our products where um they've picked it up on shelf and sort of read that back of pack and kind of calling out that there aren't sort of any skeletons in our ingredient steck closet, I guess. Um so we've definitely seen that traction build. And I suppose maybe what other people are seeing is that these um videos that of people just going into the supermarket and and calling out brands are getting so much traction. I mean, the views on them is unbelievable, millions of views. So I guess for others as well, it's almost seeing it as an opportunity to grow their platform is to almost start producing that kind of content. So we've definitely seen it kind of snowball in in sort of recent, I'd say over the past year especially, and as the UPF conversation has really heightened.

SPEAKER_01 11:47

Yeah. Everybody jumping on the biggest trends. Yeah. Um, with your recent international expansion, how is your content strategy evolving? Do you think you'll adapt storytelling for local markets or focus on maintaining one consistent global brand voice?

SPEAKER_00 11:59

Yeah, so I guess we've just launched in the Netherlands, and that's the first uh sort of international launch for the brand. Um, and it's a really interesting one because, well, the product we've launched is is our PowerShape, so the ready to drink nutritionally complete meal. And in the UK, it's it's a slightly more established market. People know the kind of um generally what a nutritionally complete meal is, it's still obviously got a lot of headroom for growth, but there's an understanding of it and there's a perception of um, you know, some products in that space are very artificial. We're obviously um carving out our position as the sort of natural nutritionally complete meal on the market. But in a new market like the Netherlands, for example, it's much more in its infancy. So whereas in the UK, we're sort of pioneering a message that's much more about um, you know, offering an alternative made from real ingredients. In the Netherlands, we're actually more establishing what the product is and um positioning it as something that's um better than a protein shake, where you know, protein shakes are much more kind of established in that market. So even just as basic as the product that we're talking about, we're having to lean into slightly different messaging and almost start that early education messaging a bit more in that new market. I guess in terms of orientating to um more of that local culture, I think we're at the beginning of that journey where we've got a strong brand in the UK, we've got a clear kind of global voice. But best in class for us is obviously adapting our marketing calendar to those local moments. So the Dutch are generally quite healthy, you know, there's sort of a lot of cycling outdoors. So um, when we're positioning that product, it's still keeping the kind of heart of the brand, that celebration of life, that celebration of making it easy to eat well, but um leaning into those kind of local uh trends and events that make it resonate with the Dutch audience and not just kind of copy-pasting our UK content across.

SPEAKER_01 13:42

Yeah, I think that's really important as well because you see so many brands that try to expand and then because they don't recognise those things, they actually end up failing. Like understanding that it's not a recognized market. So you have to change your strategy to adapt to that and then leaning into the local holidays and stuff where people are actually gonna bring the product into their day-to-day life. There's so much pressure for brands to go viral at the moment. So, how do you think you define success on social today? And what metrics do you guys look into?

SPEAKER_00 14:07

Yeah, so we are um very happy that we've gone viral twice this year. It just feels like something you want to um have on your list. And I think the virality piece is interesting because really for us, the value in the metrics that we value in social is genuinely reaching our community and seeing that that genuine engagement build, and that's things like comments, likes, shares, saves, genuine sort of follower growth. And it in a way that's it's more valuable for us to reach less people who are genuinely interested in in what we're putting out there, what our brand stands for, and what product that we make, versus having a video generate millions of views for something that actually may have nothing to do with the product. And I guess to give a bit of an example of that, um, we've had two videos go viral, and one of them um was sort of a girl on a running machine on TikTok, and it was a sort of funny split screen effect where it looked like her legs were sort of dismembered from her body. More detail on that. Um but it was just sort of visually arresting and looked weird and it generated loads of comments and it was great. The power shake was in the shot and it helped us create that buzz. You know, we could share it with our retailers and say we've just gone viral, and and it really had a purpose there. But the reality is that people were engaging with that content not because of the product, not because of the brand, it's because they were seeing that there was this weird effect of legs feeling slightly dismembered from the body, and that doesn't really grow our brand. That's not gonna grow our awareness, that's not gonna translate into people going into the store and buying it, but it does serve a purpose of creating a bit of buzz that we can amplify and and and kind of create that that feeling of noise and hype around the brand. Um, so I think I think it has a role, but really it's about consistency for us. We're not looking for kind of one-off lightning strikes. We want to build that genuine community who um over time with valuable metrics.

SPEAKER_01 15:55

I feel like you've described that perfectly. A lot of brands want to go viral because they think that's how they're gonna get success. But what you just said is so right. It's great to go viral to reach a lot of people, but at the end of the day, are they watching the video for what you wanted them to watch it for? Or is it landing in the audience of someone who just thought it was funny? So it's great that you can have those moments every now and then. But like you said, I definitely agree. It's not something you want to be doing 24-7 and you want to focus more on brand building and your community and making sure that your everyday content is hitting the right people. In a category where many brands play it safe, what's one risk you've taken on social that's really paid off?

SPEAKER_00 16:29

Um, so I can't take credit for this one, sadly. This is down to my amazing team, but um it was another TikTok viral video, and um our content creator Elle and our content manager Lydia essentially um put forward this video where it's a bowl of our power soup, and Elle is essentially dunking into it in this like disgustingly aggressive way, and just shoveling this sort of sandwich into her mouth and like dripping with soup. And the there's a call to action on the screen, which is something like tell me your um dirtiest food secret, like leave a comment. And it doesn't sound massively risky, but for a brand like Bowl, and for anyone who knows Bowl, like it is an aesthetic brand. We are kind of celebrating this like full of life lifestyle, and typically have leaned into kind of more curated visuals. So to suddenly put something out there that was the definition opposite of aesthetic felt kind of you're in that quandary of oh, I feel like it could get traction, but like is it right for the brand? And is that something we want people to see? Anyway, we put it out there, it's TikTok, like throw it to the wind, and it went massively viral and it was hilarious. Like people were just commenting, um, you know, all of their gross food secrets, like, you know, I dip my chips in a bottle of vinegar and throw it in some beans, like all this conversation. But actually, what highlighted for us is actually a the space in our brand to have fun, you know, bring on life. Actually, it's not about perfection. That's kind of what we stand for. So we can afford to have fun in those moments with our audience and um, you know, also just kind of give things a try. Like ultimately, TikTok's a great platform for that, just throwing things out there and seeing what works and like not always necessarily needing to take yourself too seriously. So yeah, that was a that was definitely something that paid off and ended up reaching one million views, which was great.

SPEAKER_01 18:13

Oh wow. Do you feel like that spurred you on to do more like risky things? Or was it one of those things that you're like, we're glad we did it, we're glad it paid off, but maybe we won't try it again for a while. Yeah, too stressful.

SPEAKER_00 18:24

Um I would say the risk thing, I think I think actually as a brand we could take more risks, and we're probably still on that journey. Um, I think it's more about um for us pushing ourselves to think about things that are genuinely conversation driving, you know, not even necessarily risky, but have that kind of shareworthy factor. Like, would you share it with a friend? Like, is this something that genuinely people will talk about? Because I think if we use that as the litmus test of whether a piece of content goes out, like, oh, you know, I genuinely find that hilarious or adds value and educational, I want to share it with my mates, then it will go further than just kind of pumping out our brand messages without really connecting to anything. Yeah, definitely.

SPEAKER_01 19:07

Following on from talking about communities on socials, is this something that you really want to bring into real life or is it something you do already? We know a lot of other brands are starting to bring community a lot more into in real life events and brand trips, and it's something I think is only going to get even bigger in 2026. So it'll be good to know what you guys are planning on doing or that you already do to bring your community into your real life space.

SPEAKER_00 19:27

Absolutely. So we um have our our community program is Friends of Ball or Bolievers. Um, and we select those people, they're people who've genuinely engaged with the brand. So there'll be people who've posted UGC, who are really active replying to our posts. So it's genuinely people who love the brand that we reach out to and almost invite to be part of our kind of inner circle community. And um that's kind of taken shape in multiple ways. That's sending them product early to review and give us their feedback, that's getting their opinion on marketing campaigns, what they think we could be doing better as a brand. And especially um, you know, as a challenger brand, we don't have a huge amount of budget for insights. Actually, speaking to our community and and learning about what they love about our brand or what they want to improve is really valuable to us. And we really want to keep that as a giving relationship where we're not just sort of asking them for things all the time, but including them and bringing them into our events is is an amazing way to do that. So in the summer months, we often do kind of the more fitness-y, wellnessy festival. So last summer we did a bunch, we sponsored the Netball Um Super League, we did Wellner G, so many more. I can't even think off the top of my head, but inviting them down to our events and getting to meet them in person is a really amazing way to strengthen that relationship bond. We've done some fun things in the past as well, like our contact manager Lydia. Um we on our power pots, we have a little um note at the bottom that says you can eat them cold, but only our founder Paul eats them cold. And we had um this guy called Sam Paul reach out saying that he eats them cold too. So we made him this sort of um personalized power pot, um, like a his own cardboard label that said, um, eat them cold if you want. Only our um founder Paul does, and Sam Paul does too, um, which is just really nice. And there's little moments like that that you can really kind of generate storytelling from. We put it on LinkedIn, it got loads of traction. And I think people just love those kind of authentic moments, really, that you can have with your community, and they always feel more powerful, more meaningful than you know, working with just a big time influencer where you just slap their products in the hand and put a big ad all over it. Like it's great to actually use community in that way.

SPEAKER_01 21:34

Yeah, definitely. That's something that we always try and do with our clients as well is bring the community in where you want to work with people that are authentic, and authenticity is like such a buzzword in the industry. But having people that genuinely already love and use the brand and doing stuff like that makes people feel really recognized and appreciated, and it it makes them love the brand more and want to do more for them. Um, so it works both ways, and I think they also get something out of it, but it also really helps you in getting like your Brand values out there and like recognition for everyone that's already invested. Definitely. So we're just going to go through some of our quick fire questions. The first one is what is your favourite book or podcast that you'd recommend?

SPEAKER_00 22:12

So feel a bit nerdy saying it's my favourite book. It's more angled as what I think is a really valuable marketing book. But for me, it's how brands grow, Byron Sharp. It's just such a great fundamental in terms of marketing principles, especially if you're someone who's not had kind of classic marketing training. It really just sort of simplifies and gives the science behind growing a brand. So yeah, for me, it would absolutely be that one. Amazing.

SPEAKER_01 22:37

Do you have one that's non-work related?

SPEAKER_00 22:39

Do you read or not really? I read on holiday and I would love to read more, but when I am on holiday, I like pace through the books. But I think one that would stick out for me is Uneducated, I believe by Tara Westwood, is just an amazing story about a girl who came from a family in Salt Lake City, a super religious Mormon family that um sort of uh can't remember the word for it, but what you think the world's ending. And she, it's the story of her journey as she kind of um re-educates herself and immerses herself in um kind of mainstream society. But it's just an incredible book that I'm not really doing a great job of selling. Read it.

SPEAKER_01 23:14

That sounds fascinating. Add it to my list. Um and then the second question is best piece of advice you've received doesn't have to be work related, could be personal.

SPEAKER_00 23:22

Uh I'll go for a personal. Um always be yourself, not a second best version of somebody else. I love that. Thank you so much, Tony, for joining us on Connected Thinking.