2026 marketing trends, from food influencers to AI
Take-Away with Sam Oches
Nation's Restaurant News
4.9 • 17 Ratings
🗓️ 19 December 2025
⏱️ 45 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this special bonus episode of Take-Away with Sam Oches, Sam talks with Kate Finley, founder and CEO of Belle Communication, a foodservice PR agency with expertise in earned media, influencer relations, creative strategy, and consumer insights. NRN has partnered all year with Belle on their Brilli platform, which offers unique insights into food influencers and how to leverage them for your business.
Kate joined the podcast to talk specifically about how marketing evolved in 2025 and what kinds of trends we should expect to see in 2026. Listen in for marketing advice, including more about:
- The importance of leveraging social media and now artificial intelligence in your marketing efforts
- How chef partnerships have become opportunities for brands to build trust with guests
- Why authenticity and relatability are still key to any marketing campaign
- How social media influencers have evolved their tactics, and how restaurants can plan to leverage influencers in the year ahead
Have feedback or ideas for Take-Away? Email Sam at sam.oches@informa.com.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to Takeaway with Sam Okas, a podcast for leaders of growing restaurant companies looking to take their businesses to the next level. |
| 0:16.0 | In nearly two decades covering restaurants, I've gained access to some of this industry's most influential decision makers, and I'm letting you in on the conversation. On today's special |
| 0:25.6 | bonus episode, I'm talking with Kate Finley, the founder and CEO of Bell Communication, |
| 0:30.7 | a food service PR agency with expertise in earned media, influencer relations, creative strategy, |
| 0:37.0 | and consumer insights. |
| 0:38.4 | We've partnered with Bell on their brilly platform, which offers unique insights into |
| 0:43.3 | food influencers and how to leverage them for your business. |
| 0:47.4 | Kate and I chatted specifically about marketing trends for 2026 and how restaurants should |
| 0:52.6 | evolve their strategies as it relates to social media |
| 0:55.8 | influencers and other digital marketing opportunities. Note that this is the final episode of |
| 1:01.4 | Takeaway for the year and we will be taking the next two weeks off to recharge for what is sure |
| 1:06.6 | to be a huge 26. I invite you to dig into the incredible conversations that we have in our |
| 1:13.1 | archive. And as always, leave some feedback wherever you're listening to this podcast as it |
| 1:17.8 | helps to spread the word to other restaurant leaders. Happy holidays and enjoy the conversation. |
| 1:24.8 | All right, sitting down once again with Kate Finley, the founder and CEO of Bell Communication. Kate, welcome back to the podcast. Oh, man, these are my favorite podcasts to do. Don't tell anyone. We're not recording this, right? Yeah, we won't tell all the competitors out there that this is the best one. Yes, yes, I love it. I love it. It's always great to talk to you, and I'm excited to talk about what's been happening in marketing |
| 1:47.0 | and what we're looking at for 26. |
| 1:49.4 | Likewise. |
| 1:50.0 | Kate, we've enjoyed this great partnership this year with your Brilli platform, and you |
| 1:54.5 | and your colleagues have come on and really helped our audience understand more about |
| 1:58.1 | the state of marketing and especially the state of influencers and |
| 2:02.1 | the role that influencers are playing within food service marketing today within B2B marketing. |
| 2:07.0 | That's something we'll really get into today and something that you and I both spend a lot |
... |
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