If 2025 felt like a busy year in foodservice marketing, 2026 is shaping up to be a full-blown beehive.
AI tech is buzzing, algorithms are swarming, and everyone’s trying to find the queen trend before it flies off to another platform. Not to worry. We’ve gathered the juiciest stuff and turned it into a forecast that’s sweeter than honey (and just as sticky).
AI search: Context is everything.
The old keyword-to-results model is quickly shattering in favor of the AI prompt-to-answer model. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) will evolve into Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) and Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) and all the infinite, organic possibilities they hold. AI search engines consider the larger context of your whole site. What’s more, Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT or Google Gemini are now able to understand the intent behind the user’s prompts. Contextualized topics and intent will take precedence over simple search terms as people use longtail prompts (20+ words).
What this means for you:
While you can’t buy visibility in the new AI search models, you can build content authority. Higher value content + volume of higher value content become more important for your website (and your sales enablement work). You can’t just stuff keywords into a page for higher ranking. It’s now more critical than ever to create meaningful, authoritative content that creates differentiated value for your audience.
- Are you deploying listening and research strategies that help you get to the core of your audience needs (cause that’s what they’re prompting)?
- How many articles do you have on these prompted topics?
- Are you leveraging your subject matter experts to create differentiated content?
These are all the tenets of a stellar content strategy…
Content: It’s still the yellow brick road.
We’ve said it a million times: Content strategy has nothing to do with your products. It is not promotional in essence. Rather, it is helpful, useful, fun, engaging, meets emotional needs. It works like this. You give-give-give. THEN ask. Building first a level of trust through topic clusters that will eventually intersect with what the product or solution can do for your customers. Giveaways like inspiration guides, culinary / LTO ideas, annual planning tools, etc. All things that help make the lives of the buyer easier.
What this means for you:
If you haven’t already, now is the time to create a solid content strategy. And if you have one already, now is the time to reevaluate it.
Creating a non-product-focused content strategy doesn’t mean your product guide doesn’t also have a role in your marketing mix. It’s just that most foodservice marketers do not yet see the value in creating content that is strictly about making life easier for whomever they’re targeting. Doing so is a long game to building trust. But building trust opens the wallet because it’s authentic.
Trust cannot be fabricated.
Thinking like a CPG marketer.
What do we mean by this?
We liken the buyer mindset in foodservice to the consumer mindset in CPG. Not that different. It’s more about what good marketing is NOT. It’s not a function for adding “fluff” or creating “spin” to shove your product attributes down the throats of targeted buyers. It’s not about positioning your brand as a me too promise when your solutions or products can’t follow through. It’s not about chasing one prospect when you can scale and be sought after by a critical mass.
- Good marketing is understanding people and the behavioral economics behind the way they make decisions. Because you are not selling food. You are selling a feeling.
- At the most fundamental level, the best CPG brands understand that emotional attachment is the name of the game. And it doesn’t take multi-million-dollar budgets to follow this model in foodservice. It is possible to get underneath the emotional core of your audience and then “world build” around them.
What this means for you:
You need real insight to understand the emotional core.
Buyer Insights + Business Objectives + Brand Building + Channel Smarts + Resources = Strategic Experience Plan.
We call it an Experience Plan instead of a Marketing Plan because we believe building experiences is the way to building emotional attachment between your brand and the buyer.
New ordering platforms = new advertising layers.
Intermediary tech platforms like Choco, Pepper, Butter, and others are cropping up more frequently now, with the intent of making it easier for operators to have more ordering and inventory management options and access to valuable data – beyond and in addition to what distributors already provide them.
These platforms are essentially doing one or more of the following: simplifying the ordering process, integrating purchasing and accounting, providing distributors more e-commerce capabilities, and creating advertising layers for manufacturer brands. All the above results in higher-integrity data from which to mine valuable insight.
What this means for you:
Depending on your business and marketing objectives, these tech layers can be a means of getting in front of your targeted buyer. At the very least, you should stay aware of how they’re evolving and what business challenges they’re solving for operators. They might present opportunities for you to drive direct operator demand – getting that delicious pull-through effect we want when historically, the operator relationship and connection has been tightly managed by distributors.
Tactical forecast: Own it to earn it.
We like to think in terms of Owned (O), Paid (P), and Earned (E) channels, and while every marketing plan should be custom to your business objectives and strategic priorities, there are some channels worth highlighting for consideration in 2026.
- Evolved websites to meet the dawn of AI Search
- Content built around topic clusters that align your brand with your buyer, as informed by real insight
- Micro-learning and educational content that isn’t boring
- Podcasting / vodcasting – like mini talk shows, a means of exploring topics in-depth, with peer-to-peer expertise broadcast across mobile digital technologies
- Paid advertising – digital, trade, and emerging
- Influencer marketing – content creator work and amplification
- Community building – creating means for your brand to enable peer-based operator discussion and interaction
