Blog

Harnessing the Power of Brands: Highlights from the Sustainable Brands Brand-led Culture Change Conference

Our Head of Sustainability, Valerie Hawks, headed to Downtown Minneapolis for Sustainable Brands' Brand-Led Culture Change 2023. She shared a few key insights from the events about how brands should think and approach sustainability.

The new AI programs we learned about at BrXnd.AI

Our team attended the BrXnd.AI conference in NYC earlier this month. The room was filled with everyone from AI enthusiasts and those who are slightly terrified at what's to come. After a day of listening to humble experts, the quote that kicked off the day never seemed more true. “If you are just writing SEO headlines with ChatGPT you are already lost.” Read more about the new AI platforms and use-cases we discovered throughout the day.

It’s What’s On The Inside That Counts

America is often referred to as the “land of excess.” Unfortunately, this rings true as we face a very real food waste problem. According to an organization fighting food insecurity, Feeding America, “Each year, 119 billion pounds of food is wasted in the United States. That equates to 130 billion meals and more than $408 billion in food thrown away each year. Shockingly, nearly 40% of all food in America is wasted.” This is a staggering amount, and it is clear that something needs to be done to minimize food waste.

The Altered State Index

We have been consuming mind-altering substances daily without thinking twice about it. From our morning coffee (or four) to the cbd or melatonin gummy we take before bed. Consumers are reaching for natural products that change their state of mind. With the rise in popularity of mushrooms, we’ve been watching the space for ingredients we believe will be trending for their mind-blowing results.

Trends & Insights from ExpoWest 2023

Last week, our team attended Natural Products Expo West. With miles of booths, we were sure to get our 10K steps in— and of course see the current and the future trajectory of culture through food & beverage products. The innovations not only excited our taste buds, but were an opportunity for us to better understand what consumers are looking for when it comes to the better-for-you category. Here are our key takeaways.

Natural Products Expo West 2023 Predicitions

We've powered up on nootropics, looked into our crystal ball and have seen the future. Gaze upon our predictions for this years show.

Brand By Robot

ChatGPT has been in the headlines for quite some time. Like most of you, we have been wondering how we can leverage this powerful tool and learn how to integrate into our skillset. Who better to learn from than the robot themself... uh..itself? We had ChatGPT write us a post on how to leverage the platform and its benefits when building a brand.

A Mound Of Confusion: Can plastic credits have the same impact as carbon credits?

A collaboration between Valerie Hawks (Head of Sustainability, Interact Brands) & Nicole Sullivan (Director of Climate Services, CarbonBetter) where they explore plastic credits, where they come from, what they do, and how to know if they are right for your business.

Welcome To The World Of Elder Flower

Mothers & Mother Nature are joining forces with Elder Flower. A new-to-world family of products that are devoted to the practices and preservation of natural beauty and vitality.

2022 Overview

As we hit the ground running for 2023, it’s hard not to look back at everything we accomplished last year.

The Fight For Food: A Look At The Future Of Food Deserts

Our food deserts blog series has been eye opening…to say the least. We bring you our third installment of the series where we spoke with Cole Riley the Founder & CEO of Wellfare‍ and Dan Glickberg of Dan Glickberg Food about the work they are doing to combat food deserts.

We Popped Into Pop Up Grocer

This year for Halloween we went trick-or-treating at Pop Up Grocer's Denver location. Emily Schildt's reinvention of the shopping experience is one part play, one part discovery, one part eye candy, and one part retail.

Retail Tomorrow with Nicole from Raye

Nicole Compen is the founder of Raye, a traveling showcase of emerging food, drink, and wellness brands championing natural ingredients and quality design. We sat down with Nicole to get her take on how she identifies and supports emerging and innovative brands in the better-for-you and wellness space.

The Great American Beer Festival

The halls were buzzing (literally and figuratively) at last week's Great American Beer Festival. The Interact Brands crew sipped away in the name of market research and bring you our top 4 trends!

Natural Products Expo East & Our After-hours Insights

Last week we attended the Natural Products Expo East 2022 in Philadelphia. There were plenty of products to see and people to meet, and while many folks focus their recaps of what happens on the show floor, we thought we’d share some of our favorite discoveries off of it.

Mondelēz International’s SnackFutures Opens Applications for CoLab 2023

CoLab 2023 is inviting disruptively delicious snack brands to apply for its collaborative start-up program.

Interview With Union Kitchen's Elena Rosenblum

Elena Rosenblum is the Vice President of Union Kitchen, a food business Accelerator building brands in the CPG space through a fully vertical supply chain. In this installment of Retail Tomorrow, we sit down and chat with Elena about her role, what inspires her and what trends she’s loving in CPG.

When the General Comes to Town: How Dollar Stores Create Food Deserts

Dollar stores fill the gap when grocery stores leave small communities. As a result, they make food inequity even worse.

The Wild Wild West of Sustainability Certifications

HotPockets Gets A Hot New Look

The Dieline interviewed our team and Nestle's leadership team on our partnership, process and how we used a redesign to win the hearts and minds of not only the head of household with purchasing power, but also to get the ideal eater—13 to 17-year-old males - excited about HotPockets

Retail Tomorrow: True North Stores And The Future Of Convenience

John Herbert is the Senior Category Manager of True North, a chain of convenience stores with ​​an ever-growing footprint of locations in Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, and Michigan. John is responsible for managing the Beer, Beverage, Dairy, Wine and Liquor Categories for over 160 locations across the US. We sat down with John to get his take on where retail is going and how the big players may need to make room for newcomer brands.

Barren: Defining Food Deserts and What We Can Do About Them

From Goodpop to Greatpop: Designalytics Effectiveness Grand Prize Award Winner 2022

ESG, SDG & More: Sustainability Acronyms You Need to Know

As you find yourself engaging in conversations about sustainability or reading up on current trends, it can help to be familiar with many of the common acronyms that are used. So, we’re breaking down ten common sustainability acronyms to help you stay informed and keep you from getting confused.

Retail Tomorrow: Mike Schall On Building Trust In The Retail Realm

During his time at Whole Foods Market, Mike Schall participated in opening over 2 dozen Whole Foods Stores, including the smaller format 365 by WFM stores. He launched Whole Foods Market’s Engine 2 Plantstrong brand and has seen countless food companies and brands start small and scale smartly. He’s a living legend in the consumer space, and we were honored to speak with him as part of our series, ‘Retail Tomorrow’.

Sweets & Snacks 2022: A Dieline Download

"You just know it’s going to be a good trade show when it’s called Sweets&Snacks." Our Creative Director, Fred Hart, dives into everything sweet and spicy from the 2022 Sweets & Snacks trade show.

Shifting Responsibility

Consumers today are concerned with sustainability. As the end-user of a product, the consumer has historically born the burden of figuring out what to do with product waste. Do they just throw it out? Do they recycle it? And when they do does it even get recycled? Up until recently, brand’s haven’t had to be accountable to the greater good. But thats about to change.

Retail Tomorrow : In Conversation with The Goods Mart Founder, rachel krupa

Retail Ready In The Age Of DTC

While already on an upswing, the shift in consumers’ journey to the online world was accelerated by the pandemic. More groceries are purchased online than ever before. More essentials like supplements are bought on-demand, or better yet, on auto-reorder.

6 Ways to Reduce Single-Use Plastic

If you take a moment to examine your day, how much single-use plastic are you using?

Is Green the new Black?

Is Green the new Black? Our Head of Sustainability Valerie Hawks offers insights into the evolution of the mega-shopping event of the year, Black Friday. As consumer demand for sustainability continues to surge, brands will have to respond accordingly.

23 AAPI Food and Beverage Brands to Support

We’re celebrating Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month by highlighting some of our favorite AAPI owned food and beverage brands. These inspired eats showcase great packaging design and lead innovation across the industry

The Fight Against Forever Chemicals

What are PFA’s, why are they being banned, and what’s replacing them? Take a dive into how “forever chemicals” affect our food and how companies are moving forward without them.

Press: AIGA Eye on Design

Explore the trend of functional foods that promote rest, as Interact strategy director Whitney Siegel weighs in on the business of branding “better sleep” food and beverages.

Drinks that Dominated Dry January 2021

Abstaining from alcohol is in style, and the alternative beverages are here to back it up. Check out some of our favorite booze-free libations to sip on in 2021.

2021 Food Predictions

2020 changed a lot for us, including the way we eat. Here are some of the food and beverage trends that are carrying us into 2021.

Cleanli - Hand Sanitizer

Interact takes a leap into the bespoke hand sanitizer. Cleanli is<br /> a premium hand sanitizer that uses all natural ingredients that<br /> leave your hands moisturized and smelling great.

Hard Seltzers Keep the Party Going into Winter

Trend Watch: Spicy Foods

The Future of Meat and Dairy: Cell Based Animal Products