Dyson, Breville and Oricom are among 10 brands that have signed up for the 2014 Bloggers Brunch (styled without an apostrophe), an annual gathering of online influencers, predominantly the so-called ‘Mummy Bloggers’, and companies looking to gain a foothold with their audiences.
The Brunch is being held from 10am to 2pm on Friday 14 November at the Centennial Parklands Dining Room, within the confines of beautiful Centennial Park, in east Sydney. Also exhibiting to the “50 leading bloggers” in attendance are Brumby’s, Infasecure, Only Organic, Unilever, AVG, Primo Smallgoods and Arnott’s.
The day includes networking opportunities between the brands’ representatives and the bloggers, product demonstrations, motivational speakers and a “generous” brunch.
“Brands also have the opportunity to showcase their products live and demonstrate how it works,” explained a spokesperson. “Bloggers in turn spend the day photographing and sharing with their readers online what brands they have discovered.”
The team behind the Bloggers Brunch say the event enables brands to make genuine and credible connections with the invited bloggers, who apparently have a combined reach of over one million readers and followers. The event was founded by PR and marketing agency Kids Business in 2010 as a way to promote “mum-t0-mum” connections based on “quality time” between bloggers and brands. Christie Nicholas, managing director of Kids Business, said, “The priority is to match bloggers with a vested interest in the brands participating. Bloggers are handpicked and invited accordingly.”
Nicholas went on to say that Dyson is making its fifth appearance at the Brunch, while Breville is backing up for a second time.
“Breville’s innovative appliances are designed to solve real food challenges that home cooks face on a day to day basis,” Breville marketing manager Richard Babekuhl. “We strive to improve our understanding of how the world makes food.
“The Bloggers Brunch is a great forum to gain insights into how families are using appliances, the tasks they want to improve, the foods they’re enjoying and meals they prepare. These insights provide us with the ability develop truly innovative appliances that create solutions.”
We asked Nicholas why events like this matter and she gave a very clear response:
“Mums are spending more time online than any other medium and are more likely to make a purchase based on someone else’s recommendation. The majority of people are doing all their research online before making a commitment to purchase. Therefore, it’s imperative that brands are speaking to the influential women online and giving them the chance to try the product themselves and potentially becoming brand advocates.”
We also asked if male bloggers were allowed to attend.
“Yes, Daddy Bloggers are invited however there is a significantly smaller number of them in the blogging community. Some have come in the past and they are always welcome.”