The Sundown Series Webinars
Zoom in on seafood marketing secrets.The Sundown Series
Zoom in on our seafood marketing webinars.
Get tips, tricks and techniques to improve your ability to attract and delight customers while building your own meaningful and memorable brand.
Interest in Australian seafood is at an all time high with the tailwind of changing consumer preferences for lighter, healthier, locally sourced produce driving more and more interest in Australian seafood products and producers.
The Sundown Series, proudly brought to you by the QSMA and funded by the FRDC, is an informal end-of-the-day Zoom gathering where experts from the seafood industry will share their insights to help you make the most of this once in a decade opportunity.
Did you miss a live webinar or can’t remember it all?
Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered.
Past Webinars & Recordings
The Sundown Series | Part 1
Selling Seafood through Social
Ben Hale from Love Australian Prawns will show you how to set up an online store with no technical knowledge and then use social media to drive hungry customers straight to your checkout. He’ll pass on the techniques and tools he uses to connect one-to-one with a million consumers through digital channels and give you some practical ideas to try yourself.
Presenter
Ben Hale – Director, Adpower / Campaign Manager “Love Australian Prawns” | Adpower
After working as a copywriter in ad agencies, Clemenger BBDO Sydney and Grey Advertising Canberra, Ben Hale started Adpower, Australia’s largest regionally based advertising agency from 1997-2007. Leading 30 people, growing turnover beyond $7.5 million, Ben was an enthusiastic founder, creative director and strategist, helping large listed companies and many SME’s achieve ambitious growth and performance goals.
After 15 years building regional Australia’s largest advertising agency, Ben Hale was looking forward to an early retirement in 2007 when a couple of Queensland seafood stalwarts challenged him to solve a marketing challenge for Endeavour Prawns. The campaign that resulted helped return a fleet to profitability for less than the cost of replacing an auxiliary engine.
Today, Ben runs the national marketing for Australian Prawns and provides strategy, content and social media services to the renewable sector and seafood industry.
The Sundown Series | Part 2
Branding Bold and Beautiful
John Susman is the principal of Fishtales, a specialist seafood marketing consultancy behind some of Australia’s most valuable seafood brands. He intimately knows seafood from the wet, messy production end to the finest white linen tables. His experience in creating and building some of Australia’s most successful seafood brands is yours to tap in this entertaining and enlightening session to help you define, expand and promote your brand.
Presenter
John Susman, FISHTALES – uncommon sense in seafood | Fishtales
With over 30 years of experience across the food industry, John Susman is best known for his intimate knowledge of all things seafood.
Having experience that includes everything from catching to cooking seafood he has settled on marketing Australian seafood product across the globe. His philosophy of working from the plate to the water highlights his focus on the eating and enjoyment of seafood first and foremost.
John owns and operates specialist seafood consultancy, FISHTALES whose clients include State and Federal Governments, Seafood Industry Associations, Fishing enterprises, Retailers and Foodservice Operations.
FISHTALES provides strategic advice across a broad range of seafood industry issues from production through to marketing but with a real focus on the design, development and deployment of premium seafood brands.
John is the Head Judge of the Royal Agricultural Society of New South Wales, Aquaculture Competition at the Sydney Royal Easter Show and Seafood Advisor to the Delicious Magazine produce awards.
With a global network of mates who are best in class fishermen, fishmongers, chefs, retailers, restaurateurs and Legislators; and a manic love for every aspect of food, John is passionate in sharing his knowledge of fresh seafood and food trends with anyone who’ll listen.
The Sundown Series | Part 3
Fishing for Insights & Opportunities in COVID Infested Waters
In the 3rd webinar of “The Sundown Series”, Melanie Norris and Neil Moody from Nielsen cover the latest Macro and Seafood trends in the Australian market.
Mel and Neil will look to provide a view of what’s happening, what does it all mean and what we can do next to meet these opportunities during such challenging times.
Presenters
Melanie Norris – Associate Director – Fresh Industry Lead | Nielsen
For more than a decade, Melanie Norris has used Nielsen consumer research to guide the FMCG and fresh industry on the latest consumer trends and has uncovered real growth opportunities for countless clients. An expert in fusing multiple data sources to provide a holistic view, Melanie has delivered her unique perspective to clients across the total fresh space including produce, meat, seafood and bakery.
Melanie is also passionate about seeing health and wellness trends translate into consumers increasing their fresh food consumption in Australia.
Neil Moody – Associate Director – Commercial Business | Nielsen
For over a decade Neil has worked with retailer and manufacturing clients across the FMCG landscape to support the delivery of insights and those businesses growth goals.
With extensive experience across analytic insights, sales and marketing strategy, execution and measurement, Neil embraces finding new ways to challenge the status quo and delight his clients.
The Sundown Series | Part 4
Seafood Supply Chain Resilience – Leveraging digital and data for industry growth
The seafood and fisheries industry faces a diversity of disruptions to its supply chain. KPMG’s recent work with Food Agility, culminating in the report ‘Mission Food for Life: AgriFood Supply Chain Resilience’, maps these stresses and shocks to the sector and suggests key ways that digital initiatives can strategically mitigate against ongoing risk.
In the 4th session of “The Sundown Series”, KPMG will uncover the core challenges being faced by the industry today, offering comparisons with other agricultural sectors, and outline how organisations can utilise technology to drive growth.
Presenters
Ben van Delden – Partner – Head of AgriFood Tech & Circular Economy Advisory | KPMG
As KPMG Australia’s Head of AgriFoodTech, Ben has over 23 years with KPMG with diverse experience, having specialised in providing assurance, accounting, innovation and business growth services to public and private organisations operating in agribusiness, consumer and industrial markets, and transport and logistics. Ben has held roles of Audit partner, Head of Markets and Innovation for New Zealand, Head of Markets and Head of AgriFood Tech & Circular Economy Advisory in Australia and is a Management Consulting partner. Ben has worked on various client assignments in markets across Australia, Europe, Japan, New Zealand and South America. Together with his teams he supports clients across government, research & development, investors, industry and startups to identify and assess market and investment opportunities, bring commercial insights and analysis and accelerate commercialisation of research. He is heavily involved in transformational digital agriculture projects, and served for 3 years on the Board of Food Agility CRC.
Dan Ginger – Manager, AgriFood and Access Asia | KPMG
Dan joined KPMG in early 2017 following his move to Australia from the UK. He is a core member of KPMG’s Food and Agribusiness sector team, helping a range of organisations from producers and logistics companies, to RDCs and Governments, to strategically grow and improve outcomes in the sector. Dan is particularly focused on supporting businesses with their export operations, in his role with KPMG’s Access Asia group, and is passionate about helping clients to pursue global opportunities. He has authored a number of related reports including ‘Accessing new opportunities’ and ‘Australian Agriculture in a geopolitical maelstrom’, and has been a central team member in KPMG’s recent work with the FRDC.
The Sundown Series | Part 5
The launch of Great Australian Seafood
Join Assistant Minister for Forestry and Fisheries Senator Jonno Duniam and Seafood Industry Australia CEO Veronica Papacosta for a peek under the hood of Australia’s first national seafood marketing campaign and the launch of the national seafood brand, Great Australian Seafood.
Find out how the “Easy As” campaign will roll out over the next 12 months, and what producers, processors, wholesalers, and retailers can do to benefit from the national effort to encourage Australians to eat more Australian seafood.
This campaign was funded by the Australian Government under the $1 Billion COVID-19 Relief and Recovery Fund.
Opening Statement
Senator Jonno Duniam – Assistant Minister for Forestry and Fisheries, and Assistant Minister for Regional Tourism
Presenter
Veronica Papacosta – CEO | SIA
Veronica is the CEO of Seafood Industry Australia (SIA), the Managing Director of the Sydney Fresh Seafood group, and a third generation seafood retailer.
The Sundown Series | Part 6
2020 and beyond at Sydney Fish Market
What does one of the world’s busiest seafood market’s do when a global pandemic strikes? Join Greg Dyer and Lauren Drummond from Sydney Fish Market as they share insights from the year that was and provide a glimpse of what the 26th annual ’36 Hour Seafood Marathon’ looks like in a COVID setting. They’ll also share the vision for what’s ahead including the reimagining of both the physical and digital experiences at Sydney Fish Market.
Presenters
Greg Dyer, CEO | Sydney Fish Market
Greg is a broadly experienced senior executive with focus on leadership, strategy, organisational change, community engagement and liaison. In his role as CEO of Sydney Fish Market Pty Ltd Greg is leading the company’s participation in the creation of the iconic new $750m Fish Market building on Blackwattle Bay as well as other transformational projects for the organisation.
Lauren Drummond, Marketing & Communications Manager | Sydney Fish Market
Lauren manages Sydney Fish Market’s marketing department and is responsible for SFM’s stakeholder relations and marketing strategy, corporate social responsibility, events, sponsorships and tours.
The Sundown Series | Part 7
Social License through Social Media
Australia’s Wild Catch Prawn Fishers have dramatically changed their practices over time to improve their sustainability performance and credentials. But is that enough?
The journey to a respected industry that is valued and appreciated for both its product and people is never-ending, but it’s just as crucial people see and hear this progress. If a fish is saved in the wilderness, does anyone hear it survive?
Learn how the wild prawn fishers took control of the narrative around their industry and dove head first into in the most opinionated, fast-moving and ultimately, powerful platform there is, social media.
Presenter
Ben Hale – Director, Adpower / Campaign Manager “Love Australian Prawns” | Adpower
After working as a copywriter in ad agencies, Clemenger BBDO Sydney and Grey Advertising Canberra, Ben Hale started Adpower, Australia’s largest regionally based advertising agency from 1997-2007. Leading 30 people, growing turnover beyond $7.5 million, Ben was an enthusiastic founder, creative director and strategist, helping large listed companies and many SME’s achieve ambitious growth and performance goals.
After 15 years building regional Australia’s largest advertising agency, Ben Hale was looking forward to an early retirement in 2007 when a couple of Queensland seafood stalwarts challenged him to solve a marketing challenge for Endeavour Prawns. The campaign that resulted helped return a fleet to profitability for less than the cost of replacing an auxiliary engine.
Today, Ben runs the national marketing for Australian Prawns and provides strategy, content and social media services to the renewable sector and seafood industry.
The Sundown Series | Part 8
Thursday, May 13th 2021 at 4.00pm AEST
Sorting Fact from Fiction – Status of Australian Fish Stocks
The Status of Australian Fish Stock reports otherwise known as SAFS began in 2012. Now in its 5th edition the 2020 report is soon to be released.
The Reports are a series of assessments of the biological sustainability of a broad range of wild-caught fish stocks against a nationally agreed framework. The reports examine whether the abundance of fish and the level of harvest from the stock are sustainable.
This report will provide assessments for 149 species, covering over 90% of the locally commercially fished species found in the markets.
When the first edition was developed it was the first to span across all jurisdictions providing a nationally reported understanding of sustainability, based on scientific assessments. This is achieved by harnessing the power of over 100 scientists and scientific reviewers to ensure that the reports are based on fact, not fiction.
Presenter
Crispian Ashby – General Manager R&D Investment | FRDC
After spending time working with industry to explore bycatch reduction options in coastal and offshore fisheries, Crispian joined the FRDC in 2002.
Crispian is currently the General Manager for Research, Development and Investment overseeing a suite of FRDC investments across the wild capture and aquaculture spheres as well as the structures and people that support fishing and aquaculture.