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Rachael

@raycharlis2

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A flying work/fun visit to Istanbul with @raycharlis2 - a fantastic tasting menu @malvaistanbul at the @hiltonistanbulbosphorus - thank you for a great couple of days and fantastic food. Cats everywhere, I do love cats, must get a couple more asap. #malvaistanbul #hiltonistanbul

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It’s officially cosy season: time to curl up with comforting food and a good read.
But if it’s been a while since you’ve picked up @Tesco magazine – the UK’s most-read food title – you might notice a few changes.

‘Switching up a tried-and-tested formula might seem like a bold move, but with the changing face of food content, we knew it was time for a redesign to embody the spirit of social and engage the next generation of modern foodies,’ says Group content director Rachael Ashley.

Enter the October issue: social-coded, packed with trending recipes and designed to help readers sort the forever food from the fads.

The team’s recipe for the refresh? To serve up:

• Iconic dishes that get people talking – and deliver on quality and value.
• Recipes that are low-fuss, flexible and adaptable, the kind you’ll make on repeat and recommend to everyone.
• A regular 12-page section dedicated to the daily question ‘What’s for dinner?’. Every night. For the foreseeable future.
• A brilliant mix of talent – from top chefs like Tom Booton to Helen Graham to food creators like Seema Pankhania and Rene Subash and the Tesco Kitchen team – and, of course, inspiration from our readers.
• The spirit and personality of social: people-fronted content inspired by culture, and a vibrant new tone of voice and look and feel.

With the issue packed full of everything from epic roast dishes that bring the pub vibes home, to a cosy crumble with a cool modern spin, the team hopes to bring on board new readers without leaving the current audience out in the cold.

‘Doing something different doesn’t mean abandoning those OG fans,’ Rachael says. ‘It’s about inviting new ones to the table with an exciting new design that feels on the beat of culture, and content that speaks their language, while staying true to the things that our wider audience loves about Tesco: quality, affordability, relatability.’

Read the issue here: https://issuu.com/tesco_magazine/docs/tesco_magazine_october_2026

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‘The September issue’ has long been a big moment in the annual calendar in fashion magazines. But, in the latest issue of Tesco magazine, we’ve used the same principles to help make sense of the glut of food trends.

There’s piece on scruffy hosting, featuring zesty, crab-loaded crisps 🦀 and the ‘New season jackets’ seen on the cover; Silvana Franco shares her take on the nonna-maxxing trend 👵🏼; and the food team gives that much-loved staple chicken a glow-up.🍗 Plus you can discover how to build a condiment capsule wardrobe and explore the coolest finds in our freezer edit.

Pick up your copy in store or read here: https://issuu.com/tesco_magazine/docs/tesco_magazine_september_26

Team Cedar: Rachael Ashley, Nina Brennan, Alexandra Whitfield, Aasawari Bapat Kale, Oscar Butterworth, Georgina Crothers, Lucy O'Reilly, Kate Best, Julie Stevens, Tracy Saville, Lucy Sandford

Tesco: Jo Kay, Gabriella Bernardelle, Ollie Rose, Lottie Smetham

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Lovely one up the @thepiecehall watching the @theundertones.official and @cartercookjonesmatlock - what a great venue and thank you @tomwilcox3 xxxx

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And that’s a wrap! Huge thanks to @raycharlis2 and @georginacrothers for organising the best send off. Thanks for everything, Team @cedarcontent_ ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

Let’s do this! ✌🏻

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‘Pull my finger’ I think was the attempted gag. Happy anniversary you smashing thing xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx #weddinganniversary #13 photo 📸 Beth Ashley

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There was no diva-like behaviour at last week’s @_bsme ‘The Devil Wears Branded Content’ breakfast, despite the name and ultra-luxurious location.

Cedar’s Group Content Director Rachael Ashley was one of the speakers at The Peninsula London, exploring the question ‘Does branded content still have a reputation problem?’.

‘I’ve always found it strange that newsstand journalists are sometimes disparaging about content marketing,’ Rachael says. ‘As Miranda Priestley’s withering description of the Andy’s cerulean jumper summed up, editorial wouldn’t exist “without the millions of dollars and countless jobs in the fashion industry”. It’s about coexistence, not compromise.’

At the round table of content marketers and editors from newsstand and branded content, the general consensus was that attitudes are changing. ‘People are more switched on than they were 10 years ago,’ Rachael says. ‘Consumers accept that there is commercial influence in everything. It’s all over their social feeds.’

One of the killer questions that host Maria Pieri, Editorial Director of National Geographic Traveller UK, asked was how editors create work that feels like culture, not compromise. ‘As long as there’s a clear value exchange, and the content is interesting and relevant, people don’t care if they’re being sold to,’ Rachael says. ‘It’s about being useful: understanding your target audience and delivering content that answers their problems, whether that’s helping them plan their next holiday or put dinner on the table.’

Also up for discussion was how the role of editor has changed over the last two decades. ‘Gone are the days of the intimidating editor in chief, with large teams doing their bidding. Today’s editors need to work top to bottom, lean into collaboration and empathy, and stay up to speed with new tech, platforms and markets. Just as Miranda has had to move on and embrace social-first content and trends like “gorpcore”, so we need to stay agile and be open to the possibilities that technology brings.’

Photography: Rachel Billings @rachelebillings

#Magazines #TheDevilWearsPrada #Newsstand #ContentMarketing

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If ever we needed reminding why we’re in this industry, Saturday was it.

A few of our creative team popped in to see Food in Print, London’s first-ever food publishing fair, hosted by @vittlesmagazine, @fatboyzine and @pitmagazineuk in the medieval chapel of St Giles’ Cripplegate Church in the Barbican.

In a celebration of independent magazine culture, the energy was incredible, with dizzying array of creators and publishers, and zines dedicated to offal (Offcuts) alongside publications celebrating food as art and centring the narratives of people of colour (@chickenandbreadzine). It was a great opportunity to connects with new and familiar faces, including…

[Pictured] Jane Gleeson, founding editor of @guzzlemag, an Irish art and food publication; Chris O’Leary of @fatboyzine, a London magazine celebrating Asian food and culture; Apoorva Sripathi, co-founder of @_thecheesemag, which dives into all things dairy; Max Meighen, publisher of @serviettemagazine, covering food through the lens of people, culture, science, history and design; Ashley Yun, co-founder of @toothsome_magazine, about food and conviviality; Lena Müller, founder of @napkin.journal, a print publication for plant-forward people; and Helen Graves, founder of iconic barbecue magazine Pit and Tesco magazine contributor.

Group content director Rachael Ashley says: ‘It was a wake-up call for anyone who thinks print is dead. Seeing the entrepreneurial spirit, passion and diversity in the room was super-inspiring. It got us more fired up than ever about what the future holds for food publishing.’

See full list of attendees here: https://www.vittlesmagazine.com/p/announcing-the-food-in-print-magazine

#FoodPublishing #ContentMarketing #FoodMedia #PublishingIndustry #CreativeIndustry #FoodJournalism #MagazinePublishing #LondonCreatives
#MagazineCulture #FoodCreators #DesignAndFood #LondonFood

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We worked with Tesco for 23 years.
And then they made us pitch for the account.
As they should.

Because history doesn’t automatically mean results and relevance. We knew that what Tesco needed to deliver sector-defining content was something completely new.

So we didn’t focus on the past. Or do a rehash of the last two decades.

Instead, we took a long, hard look at how Cedar and Tesco were working together and completely tore up our own rulebook.

We rebuilt everything, from the inside out, pitching a content strategy based on iconic editorial, with a new discoverability super-tool and a plan to prove just how effective our content is. (You’ll be seeing more of this out there in the real world soon.)

The whole process was VERY uncomfortable at times. Which it needed to be.

It meant walking into that pitch as a different agency to the one Tesco had been dealing with on a day-to-day basis.

We’re extremely proud to say that we’ve kept the business. Not because we’ve been with Tesco for 23 years. But because we’re ready for what the next content era demands.

Massive credit to the team who put everything into this (and questioned everything along the way). Jessica Daisy Haigh, Clare Broadbent, Kate McLeod, Georgina Williams, Rachael Ashley, Aileen O'Donnell, Kim Willis, Anisha Patel, Kate Fitzpatrick, Ross Barnes, Joseph Costello, Christina da Silva

And thanks to Tesco for making us earn it. Staying comfortable is never where the magic happens. Dan Porter, Jo Kay, Murray Bisschop, Claire Cormack, Tina Moore, Gabriella Bernardelle, Abbie Jenkins, Lisa Burnett, Simon Lonsdale, Rose Soulsby

So… same partnership. Completely different vibes. Let’s gooooo!

#ClientWin #Pitch #AgencyWin #AgencyLife #ClientRetention #DigitalTransformation #ContentMarketing

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A few days in Palma with the lovely @raycharlis2 (and a cheeky gig with @prambow) x @fendercustomshop - don’t she look lovely x @guitarist_mag

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Lovely 5 days in Mallorca with Rachael, Tabitha and Scarlett - back to one’s pitiful little life tomorrow, oh well.

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It may be a grey day in Shoreditch, but the Cedar team are loving their time at SXSW London, the inaugural UK edition of this iconic Austin festival.

Unsurprisingly, AI has been a hot topic. ‘I was interested to learn about how Unilever have baked AI into their content operations,’ says Chief Strategist Kim Willis. ‘Where they once might have created three videos a month for a haircare product, they now create 3000, meaning they can be more precise with testing and targeting.’

A highlight for Group Creative Director Aileen O'Donnell was a talk by Duncan Clark from Canva. ‘He talked about how communication has had a paradigm shift to a more visual approach. We’ve seen it in the rise of creator culture, especially on our social platforms – and how we show up across these platforms is now at the heart of how we work.’

Everyone agrees that it’s been such a great opportunity to explore new thinking from big names in business, tech and media. ‘For me, listening to Mishal Husain interview Tina Brown, the legendary former Editor in Chief of Tatler, Vanity Fair and The New Yorker, has been a highlight,’ says Group Content Director Rachael Ashley. ‘And getting a chance to network with people from all over the world has been amazing.’

#SXSWLondon #SXSW #AI #Creativity #Networking

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