Ahead of Mad//Fest London 2021, official media partner NDA is chatting to some of the brilliant line-up of speakers before they step on to the stage (for real) at the industry’s first big in-person event in the UK in over a year. In this edition, we speak to The Gut Stuff Co-founders Alana MacFarlane Kempner and Lisa MacFarlane.
What excites you the most about speaking at Mad//Fest?
We are most excited about going to Mad//Fest to hear the other speakers – honestly such an incredible line-up (also to see other humans in the flesh will be lovely).
We have built a business on purpose and want others to join us. We all should play a positive role in society, not watch from the sidelines, so it will be great to meet other people that feel the same!
What disruption in your market have you been most awed by in the last year?
The speed of shift to ecommerce. The pandemic has just accelerated trends that were already there but the speed has been inspiring – so incredible to watch businesses large and small pivot so quicky and positively!
What has kept you smiling in your working life during the last year’s turbulence?
Our community without a doubt – it was actually really great to us to go back to our roots, re-connect with our following and give them the content and products they needed. We also put lots of poos on bus stops with an OOH campaign, which hopefully got lots of other people smiling and laughing too! We’ve actually had so many people message us to say how it cheered them up/got them a job/inspired them to be bold – so that made us smile for sure!
What positive impacts on long-term consumer behavioural shifts will the pandemic have?
People are questioning things more especially around health and wellness, they want to know more about what’s going into their bodies and the purpose behind why businesses do what they do. Now more than ever they’re looking for wellness businesses with for honesty, efficacy, and trust.
From this we have seen that our consumers are much more aware of their impact and place in the world. We have all seen stats about gen Z switching to brands that are purpose driven and are less price sensitive to millennials – we are seeing this in real time.
What technology, innovation or market development are you most excited about for the year ahead?
It will be interesting with the cookie crumbling, and privacy becoming more and more important, how brands build or maintain a community. It’s exciting for us, but can imagine it’s scary for many who don’t play a role above the ‘transactional’ with their customers. The exchange needs to be more than just cash for product, people expect and deserve more.
