20 Things We’re Looking At Right Now To Improve Your Instagram Feed By Sean Beckingham Recently, I sat down with our ads specialist — someone who’s been with us for over five years. She runs our paid, builds our reports, and more importantly, she’s now helping guide...
Your Social Feed Isn’t a Museum. It’s a Storefront. By Sean Beckingham Recently, I sat down with our ads specialist — someone who’s been with us for over five years. She runs our paid, builds our reports, and more importantly, she’s now helping guide what we do...
Instagram Stories Are the Front Door Now. Use Them. By Sean Beckingham It’s no secret — we love Instagram at Branding & Buzzing. Our clients do too. It just works for food. Always has. Also, we also pay a lot of attention to Adam Mosseri. He puts out regular...
By Sean Beckingham What Big Food Brands Actually Do Better Than Everyone Else There’s a misconception in marketing that big food brands sit in boardrooms and “come up with ideas.” They don’t. At least not the good ones. What they actually do is build systems where ideas get tested, refined,...
Short-form video keeps evolving, and Meta continues to add tools designed to help creators produce stronger content directly inside its ecosystem. One of the latest updates is the Freeze Frame feature inside Meta’s Edits app, a mobile editing tool built to support Instagram Reels creation. While the...
When is the best time to activate influencer marketing? Most brands ask this question like there’s a perfect date on the calendar. There isn’t. The best time to activate influencer marketing is when you have something real to say — and a clear market you want to...
What Leon’s Bagels NYC Gets Right About Lifestyle-Led Food Branding By Sean Beckingham, Branding & Buzzing I recently went down a rabbit hole on the Instagram account for Leon’s Bagels NYC, and it’s one of the best examples I’ve seen of a food brand fully understanding who...
If you’re not paying attention to the mini-drama trend on TikTok, you’re missing one of the most powerful content formats of the moment. Popularized in China, mini-dramas take full-length storylines and break them into bite-sized episodes built for vertical viewing. Think soap opera tension meets Hallmark-style...
Social Media Manager vs. Social Media Marketer: Why the Difference Matters for Your Brand Strategy calls happen everywhere — even between meetings Author: Sean Beckingham, Branding & Buzzing If you are confused between a social media manager and a social media marketer. You are not alone The truth? They...
Branding & Buzzing Casting Call: Food Review Creators Wanted We’re casting real people with real personality to create fun, chaotic, low-fi reviews for an upcoming food brand campaign. Think unpolished, candid, funny, aesthetic in an ugly-on-purpose way — the exact style trending right now on TikTok...
Authored by Sean Beckingham, Partner at Branding & Buzzing Every few months, another headline drops claiming that alcohol consumption is “down,” that the industry is “in trouble,” or that Gen Z has stopped drinking entirely. And sure — some numbers show a dip. But the conversations...
🍟 Canada’s Hottest Fast-Food Drama? The Great French Fry Container Conspiracy by Sean Beckingham with AI assist If you’ve been anywhere near the internet this week, you’ve likely seen it:The Rumour™ that McDonald’s puts almost the same amount of fries in every container size.Small, medium, large — apparently...
Walk into a newly opened restaurant, scroll through a food brand’s Instagram, or browse new kitchen appliances and one thing is clear:colour is quietly disappearing. Beige walls. Off-white tiles. Stone countertops. Cream espresso machines. Neutral menus. Muted packaging. Pantone’s recent choice of Cloud Dancer — a soft...
For our agency, Terroir Symposium has never just been another industry event. It has been one of the most important gathering points for Canada’s food and hospitality community — a place where ideas, chefs, producers and marketers cross paths in 2014 it simply did not...
OPEN CASTING CALL Food Photography Creatives – We are seeking an experienced food photography creative team to produce a set of recipe-based images for the launch of a new egg brand. This is an opportunity for photographers and production teams who specialize in packaged food, recipe development,...
Why Terroir Symposium Mattered to Our Agency For Branding & Buzzing, the Terroir Symposium was never “just another conference.” It was one of the most important gathering points in the Canadian food and hospitality calendar—where chefs, farmers, producers, writers, marketers, and industry veterans came together to...
Schmuck is a New York–based cocktail bar known for its creative drinks, playful irreverence, and a team that doesn’t take itself too seriously but some how taking hospitality very seriously. Led by industry veterans, As a strategy Schmuck blends high-end cocktail culture with humour, personality,...
By Sean Beckingham I actually love the holidays. Tradition, nostalgia and doing good are some of my favourite things. One of the most classic Canadian holiday traditions is the Advent Calendar. Every December, they show up again.Sometimes they’re wildly creative. Sometimes they’re nostalgic chocolate throwbacks. Sometimes… they’re very boozy. Advent...
When is the best time to activate influencer marketing?The short answer: when your brand needs attention, momentum, and real-world validation at the same time. Whether it’s reminding consumers why they love a brand they already know, or introducing something completely new, influencer marketing works best...
Feature Artificial Intelligence (AI) Human Imagination Foundation AI relies on algorithms, vast datasets, and computational power. It processes information, recognizes patterns, and generates responses based on probabilities learned from its training data. Human imagination is a complex process driven by personal experiences, emotions, culture, and intuition. It allows for original,...
How a Cheeseburger Teaches Us AI-Discoverable Metadata And why food brands need both in 2026 At Branding & Buzzing, we’ve always believed that great food content starts with great storytelling. Sometimes that story is a chef. Sometimes it’s a destination. And sometimes — as we saw in...
Your quick guide to ADVERSITY TRUTH HOOKS "You're not going to like this, but you need to hear it...
Turning apple orchards, French heritage & great cocktails into a multi-year Canadian success story. When Calvados Business France asked us to help grow awareness in Canada, we knew exactly where to start: with creators, chefs, and stories that make people feel something. Because Calvados isn’t just...
AI-Discoverable Metadata: What It Is, Why It Matters, and How Brands Should Use It As search evolves beyond keywords and into a world driven by generative AI discovery, brands are entering a new era of visibility. No longer is it enough to “rank” on Google alone....
Meta Replaces “Impressions” with “Views” — What It Means for Your Brand Metrics As Meta continues to evolve its analytics and unify performance tracking across Facebook and Instagram, a key update is now rolling out: “Impressions” are being replaced with “Views.” This change aligns Facebook with Instagram’s...
