36 - What We Can Learn From A Tomato Fridge Ad - Meghan Hurley, Head of Marketing at Farmer's Fridge

Meghan Hurley joined me on the show to talk about yummy food and marketing.

Meghan Hurley is Head of Marketing at Farmer’s Fridge. She's also a founding member of Chief (the private network of women leaders that are helping and supporting each other). Meghan has held marketing leadership roles at Trunk Club, Peet’s Coffee, McCain Foods, and Whole Foods.

Farmer’s Fridge was founded in 2013, has ~150 people, and is based out of Chicago, IL. They've raised Series C ($42M total).

Farmer’s Fridge is on a mission to make it simple for everyone to eat well. They've developed a rapidly growing network of 350+ user-friendly smart Fridges stocked with chef-curated, restaurant-quality meals and snacks. Besides the vending machines, they've also recently started offering delivery. PLUS a recent partnership with Rick Bayless. Lots goin' on.

Here's what we hit on:

Who eats Farmer's Fridge (besides me);

Who's on the marketing team;

What marketing channels are working well (HINT: leveraging UGC is part of it, also email);

Partnering with Dunkin' Donuts;

Being scrappy during COVID with photos, iPhone videos, motion, colors, etc.;

"People are fickle" so how do you approach looking at your marketing data;

The "tomato fridge" ad - this UGC story is fascinating;

What are the top challenges (HINT: growing the team that supports the growth of the org);

Why it makes sense to invest in a marketing TEAM vs. just one person;

What is the Head of Growth in charge of? (HINT: supports email - lifecycle marketing, SMS/Push, and soon Web - SEO)

How Meghan's experience at Starbucks, Whole Foods, McCain, Peet's, and Trunk Club has impacted the way she understands ops, brand + growth (HINT: observing consumer behavior is a BIG part of it);

Bad marketing recommendations (HINT: the pendulum has swung too far to analytics and paid, so that brand is underdeveloped);

Chicagoans love to connect with others and play the "who do you know?" game;

Meghan gets a little introspective and talks about some mistakes as a leader.

You can find Meghan on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/meghan-hurley-a4b4532/

Find out more about Farmer's Fridge: www.farmersfridge.com/

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Thanks for listening!