The issue isn’t a lack of effort or ambition. It’s a lack of alignment. Audience targeting can lack meaningful detail and rigour. Recycled creative doesn’t cut-through, nor compel. And go-to-market strategies don’t reflect the behaviours of modern B2B buyers. This foodservice ‘growth paradox’ requires a full-scale strategy audit and rethink. 

Success starts with refocusing on the three pillars that drive results, and how they combine to reach the right people with relevance, actively build desire, and ultimately grow brands faster. It’s this approach that’s defined Omne’s work with the world’s best food and beverage brands - and earned us the B2B Marketing Agency of the Year award for 2025. 

Strategy: Laser-sharp targeting

When striving for growth, it’s easy to fall into the trap of targeting as many outlets as possible. But overly broad audience segments (such as ‘quick service restaurants’ or ‘pubs’), even when lightly prioritised by need or readiness-to-buy, typically inflate acquisition costs, stretch sales capacity and reduce overall conversion rates.

Improving targeting discipline requires honest reflection. Who are you currently reaching, and why? Do you have enriched operator intelligence, or just basic contact lists? Are you scoring and prioritising operators based on genuine growth potential, not just volume? Can you segment operators by challenge, cuisine, site count, growth trajectory and reputation, and does that segmentation meaningfully change how you market and sell to them? 

Improving performance in the Away From Home channel often requires better use of data, not just more activity. A connected, data-led growth platform designed for the foodservice market will surface hundreds of thousands of operator profiles across multiple key sectors, enriched with outlet-level attributes like spend, cuisine, group structure and social signals. Then, it consolidates live operator data, applies lead scoring models and automates nurture workflows based on real engagement signals. 

It’s this level of laser-sharp targeting that must form the backbone of any serious growth investment. 

Creative: Relevance and cut-through

As we explored in a previous blog, creative borrowed from retail or brand campaigns often lacks relevance and doesn’t reflect operator reality, in channels that don’t match the buying journey. We see this a lot. 

However, what suppliers can take from B2C are modern decision-makers’ expectations of seamless, personalised engagement. 

Suppliers looking to engage modern B2B buyers must therefore reconsider how they’re going to deliver that hyper-relevance at scale. Ask yourself - does your creative speak to operator’s specific realities, or might it feel generic to the market? Does your creative lead with features, or benefits based on true operator needs? Does your creative balance the functional and the emotional? Put yourself in an operator's shoes - would your creative break through, stop you in your tracks and create action? 

Ultimately, growth comes from creative that reflects the real context operators are working in; relevant to their challenges, aligned to their journey and meaningful in the moments that influence decisions.

Go-to-market: Expertise is everything 

Fast-changing B2B buyer behaviours and preferences have ripped up the old trusted GTM manual. 

Established B2B tactics, like trade press advertising, traditional industry events, basic wholesaler promotions, no longer deliver impact on their own, and certainly not at scale, or sustainably. 

Real growth in the AFH channel comes from precision targeting across multiple touchpoints that effectively and efficiently reach operators in the right places, with the right messages, at the right time. A science that requires true expertise.

That level of precision requires a stronger understanding of operators themselves. At Omne, we focus on uncovering commercially meaningful insights through proprietary research and a purpose-built data engine, combined with deep foodservice expertise, to help suppliers identify where real growth opportunities exist.

From there, targeted activation and creative brings those insights to life, translating strategy into campaigns and sales assets that engage operators and support commercial teams. 

Case in point: McCain SureCrisp 

As delivery continues to shape the Away From Home channel, operators face a stubborn challenge: how to deliver consistently crispy fries when so much of the journey is out of their control. With budgets under intense pressure, tolerance for waste or inconsistency is low.

Partnering with McCain Foodservice Solutions - the B2B arm of the frozen foods giant - Omne crafted the “Together, let’s take control of crispiness” campaign. The creative spoke directly to operators’ lived experiences, positioning McCain SureCrisp as the solution that restores confidence and consistency in delivery. Our work encompassed: 

• Strategy 

• Design and artwork 

• Digital activation 

• Campaign development 

• End-to-end digital ecosystem 

• Paid social media 

Strong early performance informed a strategic pivot towards sustained awareness, prioritising long-term brand equity and share of voice over short-term consideration messaging. By reading performance signals and optimising mid-flight, the campaign delivered strong results, generating over 63 million impressions and 57,000 clicks.

Most importantly, its smart targeting and optimisation positioned SureCrisp as the fry for delivery - and McCain as a brand that truly understands operator realities.

Ready for a strategy audit? 

If your brand growth is stalling, ask yourself: are your targeting, creative and go-to-market strategies working together to drive growth - or pulling in different directions? A structured growth audit can quickly reveal where targeting, creative and go-to-market execution may be falling short. To learn more, get in touch at hello@omne.agency.