Sugar reputational risks: alva speaks at Food and Drink Federation Health Briefing 2016

In February 2016 the Food and Drink Federation (FDF) invited alva to speak at their Health Briefing event.

Sugar has increasingly dominated the conversation in the food and beverage industry and over the last few years alva has analysed millions of pieces of content related to this issue. The FDF asked Emma Ross, alva’s Practice Leader for Consumer, to present our findings to a gathering of some of the world’s biggest brands in the sector, focusing on:

• Media discussion of sugar and its impact on reputation
• The influence of sugar on consumer advocacy and criticism
• Mainstream and social media sentiment towards alternative sweeteners

For this report (available via the form to the right) we restricted our analysis to around 45,000 pieces of content, particularly focused on three different sectors – soft drinks, cereals and confectionary – and identified trends that indicate the particular sectors and products that are likely to be targeted.

The key findings from our research were:

• Cereal was the most negatively impacted sector out of the three analysed
• Soft drinks had the highest sugar visibility, but the industry effectively neutralised coverage
• Sugar content benefitted confectionary, often compared to other, “healthier” products
• Stevia had the highest sentiment score in mainstream and social media
• Aspartame discussed most negatively in mainstream and social media

You can download the presentation slides using the form to right. If you would like to discuss any of the findings from the FDF presentation, please email Emma Ross emma.ross@alva-group.com, or call 0203 735 9791.