Consumers have fallen on snacks like never before to overcome the emotions tied to the coronavirus outbreak, sending sales of the treats through the roof. Mondelez’s recent State of Snacking report found that 67% of those working from home during the pandemic prefer snacking over meals, with more than half (53%) of consumers buying nostalgic childhood brands.
The swerve away from F2F meetings also did a quick ‘step-ball-change’ as restrictions forced people into lockdown and working remotely from home.
‘Cool’ app
The new style of events has effectively negated the ‘old-style’ camaraderie of sharing snacks and coffee while discussing strategies over a boardroom table … but, according to NatureBox CEO John Occhipinti, this can easily be rectified.
The door-to-door distributor of healthy snacks – which first burst on the scene in 2012 – has launched the first-ever automated app service to make it even easier to preorder healthy snacks ahead of a virtual meeting, which Occhipinti calls ‘cool’.
The thinking behind ZoomSnacks it to bring back that sense of community … to spend more time connecting and less time coordinating.
“This is the easiest way to order healthy snacks ahead of any virtual meeting,” added Occhipinti, who is also a managing partner at Wheelhouse, which acquired NatureBox from founders Ken Chen and Guatam Gupta in 2018.
“We are all fighting ‘Zoom fatigue’. Food is a great way to engage your team and bring some of our basic office communal experience to our digital meetings. ZoomSnacks just makes the process easy.”
The entire process takes just three minutes.
Firstly, the host adds the ZoomSnacks app to the meeting invite: be it over Zoom, Google Meet or Microsoft Teams.
ZoomSnacks instantly sends the host an email snacks order, confirming the list of attendees and the budget.
The app then sends an automated opt-in message to the meeting attendees and arranges a Snack Pass for them to choose from over 60 healthy snacks available from NatureBox.
The snack boxes arrive ahead of the meeting to be enjoyed together while tackling future tactics to stay ahead of curve, albeit not over a boardroom table but over the world wide web.
Healthy snacks
ZoomSnacks recipients are also given a free annual membership to NatureBox. The $30 annual membership fee entitles members to a 20-40% discount on all personal orders of snacks.
ZoomSnacks not only takes the cumbersome and time-eating task of coordinating snacks for online meetings and events, but can be used for any virtual occasion, from birthday parties to family gatherings, and even as corporate gifts and employee rewards.
NatureBox offers a plethora of snacks to choose from – new ones are added every month – with one overriding factor: providing healthy snacks.
The site breaks down its offerings into snacks made without gluten; those providing a good source of protein and fibre; treats that contain no added sugar/less than 10g sugar/less than 150 calories; and snacks tailored to specific lifestyles like paleo, keto and vegan, among others.
It also offers a range of adaptogenic snacks – containing ingredients like maca, moringa, turmeric and ashwaglandha – that help to reduce fatigue, stress and anxiety, while stimulating energy and focus, and boosting immunity, brain and hormone health.
“Adaptogenic snacking with food actually balances cortisol levels and stress in the body,” said Occhipinti.
