Butter Get On Board With Apps

Diet and Foods apps - there's hundreds of them. Whether you use them to keep track of what you eat, get nutritional facts about certain food products (yes, as much as I hate to admit it, that bag of Grain Waves really does have 837 calories, just because they have fiber, doesn't mean they're healthy), or just have it on your phone to make you feel better about yourself (because you're GOING to start the diet soon, right?), they're an insanely popular type of app to download.

For example, Fooducate is an app that allows you to see the nutritional value of food after you scan the bar code (or manually search) using your phone. You can also see reviews of food by other app users, see alternatives that are a bit healthier than what you look up, track what you eat, and get diet advice. Another example is Diet Butler, who can tell you your ideal calorie intake ever day, based on your 'physical' data. Then, it has different features that keep people inspired, and sticking to their diet.

Using an app instead of a website to reach an audience can be a really good option. It's super easy to track it's success - just look at the amount of downloads. Plus, people can easily leave reviews and comments about the app, so you can improve it to make or more user friendly. It can also be harder to track your eating habits/your diet on a website. Apps make it loads easier and you don't have to go searching through the web to find your details, simply open the app, and all your stuff is there. Fooducate enables you to scan a bar code and receive information about the food - whereas otherwise, you'd have to go look up all that info online.
The only issue is, how do you make yours different from all the others?

Hungry Jacks' Egg-straordinary App

Hungry Jacks are obviously one of the biggest fast food chains in the country. They've had a super successful social media campaign surrounding their app (don't lie, we all downloaded it, hoping to get a free burger, only to end up disappointed when we only got a $2 discount).

Basically, you download the app, shake it, and you get a discounted or free item from the menu, after you post a 'check in' to your Facebook page.

This was huge a couple years ago, and was super successful for a couple reasons - 

1. Everyone's Facebook feed was filled with these kinds of posts - they were EVERYWHERE, which meant that people were constantly reminded of HJ's, and a bunch of people were seeing not only an Ad for Hungry Jacks, but getting a download link so they could check in to HJ's too.

2.  Lets get real, when you go to a fast food restaurant, you're not looking to be a 'little bit fancy,' you want a greasy, cheap burger, preferably with bacon. So, unless you're super picky with your food, there's not a big difference between Maccas and HJ's. Why go to Maccas to get a burger, when you could get a free one, or a discounted one at Hungry Jacks?

Know Where Your Food is Cumin From

Even if you're like me, and haven't posted a Facebook status in about 4 years, everyone still checks their Facebook account pretty much every day, if not more. It makes sense then, that Facebook is still the biggest social media platform in the world, which means, you guessed it, that it's a great place for advertising. Obviously, because so many people are on Facebook, any sort of advertisement is going to reach a lot of viewers, which can also mean it's good value for money.

The good thing about Facebook likes, is that with website cookies, when you like a page, or visit a website, a lot of advertisements will be related to those pages. For example, if you visit the page of Cafe Montagna, other resaurants and food ads could pop up on your home page. Because there are so many cafes, restaurants, and general food products being advertised, this is actually a really effective way for any business involved in food to advertise.

For example, the other day, I went on a website talking about food in Australia, and then I started seeing ads for the Country of Origin Labelling for Food. Basically, they're spreading the fact that new stickers will be put on foods so that we'll be able to tell where it comes from more easily.

Given everyone's recent obsession with organic and healthy food, it's pretty logical to assume that people care about where their food is from, and if it's an Australian product or not. So, making sure people know new labels are coming, and what they mean is a pretty smart idea, and advertising it on Facebook ensures people will be in the know.