Mintel in the Media – this week's highlights

It was crunch time for PR coverage in the UK press office this week as we released news on our new biscuits report. The story proved to be a huge hit with the press, and we got some great coverage in many of the nationals including the Express which talked about how traditional biscuits, such as bourbons, malted milks and custard creams, are making a comeback.  Quoting Alex Beckett, Food and Drink Analyst at Mintel, who said: “The youth of Britain is growing up immersed in digital media, text-speak and cutting edge gadgetry but this doesn’t mean they don’t appreciate a good custard cream.” The same story was featured on AOL, The Daily Telegraph, the Scottish Daily Express, The Daily Mail and the Daily Mirror. Alex was in demand with the national radio stations, he was interviewed on BBC Radio Scotland and TodayFM in Ireland, where he took part in a tea dunking discussion live on air.

We also had a fantastic exclusive from our latest soup report in The Telegraph which talked about how sales of traditional canned soup fell by £20 million in 2011 as people turned their backs on old-fashioned tins in favour of chunkier and more filling varieties.  Still with food, The Times quoted our ready meals report data in “Ping for your supper.”

On to retail, Mintel’s Richard Perks was interviewed on Sky News in a feature about Tesco selling a 50% stake in Japanese business to Aeon.  While our technology expertise, and in particular camera research was the subject of Bloomberg Business Week in an article titled “The iphone era, Laica tries its own stores.”

On to a subject close to many women’s hearts – weight. On Sunday our diet research was quoted in The Observer in “I guess I am having a heart attack,”  Mintel estimated that 13 million people in the UK are on a permanent diet, two out of five of them women.  On the same day, The Sunday Times quoted our latest fashion size matters research in ‘Fashion Kids are cut above Her inspiration?” where Mintel research predicted that plus-size sales will grow 43% in five years.

Over in Geneva, Mintel’s Lynn Dornblaser was interviewed by Food Navigator Asia the article included a voice-over of Lynn talking about the trend towards Asia skipping the EU & US to deal direct with Latin America.

In Grazia Daily our women’s fragrances data – in particular celebrity fragrance research – was quoted in an article about Justin Bieber’s new scent ‘Girlfriend.’ The same story was featured in Yahoo! Entertainment in Malaysia.

It was a great week for travel research conducted via Mintel research consultancy, as the trend towards more and more older people travelling overseas was featured on PA , news quickly spread to The Daily Telegraph which talked about how the proportion of trips abroad taken by those over the age of 45 rose to an estimated 50 per cent in 2011, up from 47 per cent in 2006. The Daily Mail followed up with the same story which talked about how over-55s are more likely to globetrot than the young generation, and they’ll book it all online. The same story was run in TTG Digital , Travel Weekly, Travel Mole and Focus on Travel News.  

Our household research expertise was called upon as Bloomberg quoted Mintel in an article about how P&G cuts are forecast as sales growth slows in Europe and the U.S.
The economic situation in Europe “is still very fragile,” Richard Caines, an analyst at Mintel International in London, said in a phone interview. “The fact that they’re talking about it means it will affect every company in those markets.” The same story was featured in SFGate.

Over in Asia, Australian Food News talked about the boom in popularity of Kosher-certified foods across the U.S, while Food Manufacture talked about how Japanese exports are boosting growth for West Midlands brewery. Retail in Asia discussed how brands are driving beer sales in China.  Still with our latest China beer news story  Live Trading News talked about how China beer consumption has hit records, meanwhile, The Gulf Today talked about how cold cereal is a vibrant business in the US.

And over in the US press office, several of the stories we released to the press got widespread media attention. First up, last week’s press release about Chinese beer consumption continued to appear in various publications, including Yahoo! News, The New York Daily News and All About Beer Magazine.

Meanwhile, our press release that discussed anti-aging beauty usage across the globe and announced our presence at this week’s HBA Global Expo got the attention of Happi Magazine, Cosmetics Design, Beauty Packaging and GCI Magazine. Global Personal Care Analyst, Amy Ziegler, was quoted as saying “Technology is ingrained in our everyday lives, embracing technology in our beauty regimen seems like the next logical step.”

Additionally, last week’s release that quoted Senior Vice President of Mintel Comperemedia Andrew Davidson discussing a 25-month-low for credit card direct mail volumes was still a hot topic in the news. The story was covered by CreditCards.com, The Wall Street Journal, American Banker and Fox Business.

Also of note, Director of Foodservice Research, Eric Giandelone, was quoted in a QSR Magazine story where he discussed the next big foodservice trends to hit the fast food industry in the next five years. According to Giandelone, the QSR market “is wide open for an Asian concept with a mid-market price point and a semi-upscale feel.”

Yet another great piece of coverage came from a story in The New York Times about a new ad campaign for anti-nausea drug Dramamine that used Mintel’s OTC remedy data (11% of consumers have purchased an anti-nausea remedy in the past year) while The Press-Enterprise referenced our energy and nutrition bars sales data for a profile of a health food firm’s recent expansion.

Closing out the week David Browne, Senior Analyst at Mintel, was quoted in two publications this week when Baking Business interviewed him for a story about the frozen pizza industry and CSP Magazine sought out his expertise on the gluten-free food market. Prepared Foods highlighted our insight into the future of kosher foods while HispanicMPR referenced data from our Attitudes Toward Sodium report.