How Today’s Consumers Are Changing the Way We Communicate About Seafood and Soy

Consumer expectations around food have shifted, and for industries like soy and aquaculture, that means rethinking how we build trust, explain production practices, and share sustainability stories.

During Soy Connext 2025, Emily De Sousa, co-founder of InnaSea Media, a marketing agency specializing in communications for the seafood industry, gave a presentation about how to better connect with consumers. From producers and exporters to feed ingredient suppliers, InnaSea Media specializes in turning complex systems into clear, relatable stories that resonate with today’s buyers. Here are some of our main takeaways from their presentation.

Whether you’re selling soy, seafood, or something in between, one thing is clear: modern consumers expect more transparency, more access, and a deeper connection to the people behind their food. In this article, we’ll walk you through how to reach them.

Consumers are driving a communication reset

Over the past decade, we’ve seen a significant shift in the demographics and expectations of food buyers.

Millennials and Gen Z now make up more than half of the U.S. seafood market by volume, and their influence spans multiple product categories.¹ These are highly educated, digitally connected consumers who research before they shop, value nutrition and sustainability, and want to know more than just what’s in their food. They want to know where it came from, how it was made, and who made it.

This shift has changed how trust is earned. Labels and slogans aren’t enough – brands and industries need to show their work.

They’re asking questions long before the sale

In the past, most food decisions were made at the store or in a restaurant. Today, the decision-making process starts much earlier.

Consumers now use social media platforms as research tools, with TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube increasingly serving as informal search engines. They’re watching videos, reading posts, and forming opinions based on what they see and hear in those spaces, often before they’ve even added a product to their shopping list.

This means that the seafood industry must meet consumers earlier. If we’re waiting until they reach the seafood counter to tell our story, we’ve missed the opportunity to build trust when it matters.

Trust is shifting from institutions to individuals

Today’s consumers are skeptical of polished campaigns and corporate messaging. They’re more likely to trust content from individual creators, especially those who speak from firsthand experience.

This doesn’t just apply to lifestyle influencers. A small-scale farmer sharing a day-in-the-life video, or a feed technician explaining a sustainability improvement, can be far more compelling than a standalone press release or infographic. Audiences crave authenticity, and they’re more likely to trust information delivered in human terms.

That shift presents a major opportunity: industries like soy or aquaculture, which often feel abstract or unfamiliar to outsiders, can gain trust by humanizing their operations and inviting consumers into the story.

The information sources are noisy and misleading

One of the biggest challenges today is that anyone can publish anything. While this creates space for new voices, it also means that misinformation spreads easily, especially around technical topics like aquaculture, seafood production, or feed ingredients.

Waiting for misinformation to die down rarely works. What’s more effective is proactive storytelling: showing up in the spaces where your audience is, answering their questions honestly, and making the facts both visible and relatable.

Soy as an under shared success story

InnaSea Media shared that many consumers aren’t even aware that soy plays a role in aquaculture feed, let alone what it means for the environment or food quality.

But the good news is: not a failure of the product – it’s a communication gap.

Since 1980, U.S. soybean farmers have more than doubled production—achieving a 130 % increase—while substantially improving environmental efficiency: land use efficiency by ~48 %, water use by ~60 %, energy use by ~46 %, and greenhouse gas emissions per unit by ~43 %.² But if the average consumer doesn’t understand what soy does or why it matters, then those benefits go unnoticed. And when consumers don’t understand something, they’re more likely to doubt it.

Rather than burying them in technical detail, the goal should be to connect the dots between soy’s role in production and the values consumers already hold: sustainability, affordability, nutrition, and trust.

Storytelling starts with people

One of the most effective ways to build trust is to focus on the people behind the process. InnaSea Media has seen firsthand the impact of sharing stories from farmers, researchers, and supply chain professionals who speak plainly and personally about their work.

Whether it’s a farm family describing their connection to the land, or a researcher explaining how feed trials support better environmental outcomes, these stories resonate. They remind consumers that behind every product is a person, and behind every decision – a reason.

Science and storytelling aren’t at odds – they complement each other. When we explain technical concepts in human terms, we make the message more powerful.

A strategic shift across the board

Improving communication with modern consumers doesn’t require an overhaul, but a few key shifts:

When industries are willing to adapt their messaging style, not just their talking points, they create room for stronger relationships, better understanding, and long-term trust.

A Better Future for Aquaculture

One final takeaway from InnaSea Media’s presentation was that the future of food communication depends on transparency, empathy, and creativity. Whether you’re explaining how soy is used in aquafeed or why your product supports cleaner oceans, the goal is the same: create a message that makes sense to the people who matter most.

Consumers today aren’t just buying food. They’re evaluating it long before a product is purchased, based on the story they hear. Let’s make sure it’s the right one.

Watch this video to learn more about the people behind the aquaculture industry in Colombia as an example of effective storytelling.

This article is funded in part by the Soy Checkoff.