Dive Brief:
- The typical e-vangelist is female, active online, financially secure and has a family, according to the Food 2020 report by Ketchum. These food advocates "listen to everyone, trust no one, and take action." They study food issues and share what they learn.
- More than a third of e-vangelists take the time to recommend and critique brands, both online and offline. They generate roughly 1.7 billion conversations about food every week.
- Among the key things e-vangelists want are freshness, less packaging and fewer prepared foods.
Dive Insight:
One thing that Ketchum doesn't mention in its report is that e-vangelists are not only influential, they're interesting. In fact we'd go so far as to say they are the most interesting thing happening in the food and beverage industry. The e-vangelists are the power behind everything fascinating in food today -- environmentally friendly packaging, the foodie movement, grass-fed beef, anti-cruelty initiatives, gluten-free baking, local sourcing, organics, anti-GMO lobbying, etc., etc. etc. All of this is born of food bloggers, Mommy bloggers and the rest of the e-vangelist movement. Our particular favorite has to be Martha Payne (pictured above), the child who took on that most hideous example of a food industry that doesn't "get" food -- the nasty, unhealthy and just-plain gross school lunch.