The Edible Bug Shop has launched its consumer facing brand Circle Harvest as part of National Science Week, with new branding and reformulated products for the range.
First established in 2007, Edible Bug Shop is run by a team of scientists developing products using insect protein with an aim to feed more people with less resources.
It was one of the businesses selected in the Mars Seeds of Change Accelerator Program last year, and as part of the initiative, Edible Bug Shop worked with Sydney-based agency Clemenger BBDO to help grow the branding, messaging and design of its products.
“An area where we have always struggled is with the branding of our retail range, we could never seem to get the right branding to show off our unique ingredients as well as our story,” Edible Bug Shop founder Skye Blackburn said.
“The team at Clemenger really took the time to learn about our journey so far, about all of our staff and what was important to them in the design, as well as our farming and manufacturing processes and I feel that all of these things are reflected in the new branding.”
As part of the reformulation of the retail range, Blackburn told Food & Drink Business that the team examined all of the ingredients and where they come from, and wanted to have as many Australian products as possible.
“We also took a look at all of the products and thought of ways to improve the nutritional profile, adding more nutritional value to each product,” she said.
“Australian native ingredients are so delicious and we looked at ways where we could add them as unique flavours to as many products as we could. Now we have High Protein Cricket Powder Lemon Myrtle & Saffron Pasta, Wattle Seed Granola and Saltbush & Rosemary Cricket Corn Chips.”
Reflecting maturity
Blackburn told Food & Drink Business the team wanted the new look to reflect how the company has matured in the last 13 years and looked to update the logo, which had previously featured “a big, life-like grasshopper on a fork”.
“The new logo has been inspired by our story and how we farm our insect proteins. The imperfect circle in the logo represents the way that we circle fruit and vegetable waste back into our food system by feeding it to our mini livestock, the yellow sun shows us the solar energy we use to help us reduce our outputs and the crickets and mealworms on the logo are drawn in a way that is fun and inviting,” she said.
“Luminar is our packaging supplier – we chose to keep a hand-made look and feel to our products by applying matt stickers to the plain black paper bags. They can be recycled and in the not too distant future, we will be moving to home compostable packaging for all of our products with the help of Luminar.”
Blackburn said one of the biggest barriers of consumers adopting insect-based proteins has been perception, and with the new Circle Harvest branding, sharing the messages around the importance and ease of including insect proteins as part of the food system was now possible.
“We feel that consumers are ready to start including insect proteins in their diets, but are often unsure of how to do this, the products in the new range make it easy to incorporate insect proteins into everyday life and make them more accessible to a greater range of customers,” Blackburn said.
“The next bug thing in food is little. Hop on board.”
The launch of Circle Harvest coincides with 2020 National Science Week, which is running from 15 to 23 August, with the new products now available online through the Edible Bug Shop website.
