In our Speaker Spotlight series, get to know our speakers before you see them. Find out what trends Sarah Crawley predicts this year, who they admire in the industry, and why you should attend their session at Natural & Organic Products Europe in April.
What one person or business in the natural & organic industry do you really admire and why?
Wild Cosmetics. They have completely disrupted a category dominated by the key CPG players with a fantastic product – a natural and sustainable deodorant that genuinely works! And they’ve brought it to life with bright, uplifting packaging and a fun, upbeat and engaging brand identity with a marketing strategy focused on social media influencers marketing, reaching their customers directly and creating a community of Wild lovers.
What do you see as key trends for natural & organic in the coming year?
I think we’ll see customers look for natural alternatives to ingredients and products that are trending in categories like skincare – such as Bakuchiol which acts as a natural alternative to retinol.
For the last few years, adaptogens and mushroom powders have been increasing in prominence but I expect this year to be the year of the Mushroom, fuelled by brands such as Dirtea.
Can you give us an example of what your business is doing to become even more sustainable
Our work is focused on supporting sustainable brands and helping them take customers away from less sustainable brands – so being more sustainable is something we live and breathe!
As an organisation, we are increasing our carbon offsetting this year and looking into how we can become carbon positive, increasing the use of sustainable packaging with all of the influencer send outs we do and striving for our B corp certification, hopefully this year!
What’s the most rewarding aspect of your role and the most challenging?
The most rewarding is seeing the impact of our work – seeing our clients, who are brands with purpose, take on some of the more established brands in the category and deliver incredible results. We’ve had two clients sell out of their core products this year!
The most challenging is more the operational side of running your own business as I’m learning it all for the first time – the accounts, cash flow, the people side of things, how we grow as an agency moving forwards… all of this is what keeps me awake at night!
How important is Natural & Organic Products Europe trade show to the you/industry?
Great to bring this community of brands together who are all doing amazing work to bring natural and organic products to the fore. I believe we can achieve so much more when we come together to affect change and it’s great so many exhibitors and visitors coming to the show, sharing the ambition to bring natural and organic products further into the mainstream.
Why should visitors attend your session at the show?
Social media and influencers have enabled brands and businesses to completely disrupt the path to purchase in a way you couldn’t do 10-15 years ago unless you had budgets running into 5 or 6 digits. It is now much easier to reach your customers directly through harnessing the power of social media and influencers in the right way, but its an ever changing world and can be difficult to navigate. I’ll be sharing more on how to use TikTok to help support your business growth and why short form content (i.e video!) is the future.
What’s the best advice you’ve ever been given.
Understand what your values are and what makes you tick and where possible try to orient your career and what you do around these and it will transform your job satisfaction and passion for what you do.
See Sarah Crawley’s session ‘Taking the exciting but daunting leap into TikTok: The power of the short form content‘. Register for a trade ticket here.
The post Speaker Spotlight: Sarah Crawley – The Good Influence appeared first on Natural Products Europe.
