Food Polka is a Los Angeles and Orange County-based full-service creative studio and production company specializing in food, beverage, CPG, and hospitality brands and businesses across the U.S. and Europe.
We help American and international food and beverage brands connect with U.S. consumers. Whether you’re entering the American market, launching a new product, or growing an established business, we combine our understanding of American consumer behavior with creative strategy, research, and full-service production to develop content that resonates with the audiences and demographics you want to reach.
We create content and marketing collateral that persuade consumers and audiences: makes people hungry, curious, interested, and ready to try, order, visit, or buy. Beautiful photography and video are only valuable when they communicate something that matters to the people you’re trying to reach.
Food Polka combines creative and consumer behavior strategy, concept development, art direction, food photography, video production, tabletop production, food and prop styling, post-production, and AI-supported multiplier creative services into one coordinated offering.
From the first idea to final delivery, Food Polka handles the creative and production process, giving brands a single partner responsible for both: the thinking and the execution.
We offer individual projects, customized packages, and ongoing creative retainers tailored to different business needs, goals, and budgets.
Read about how Food Polka works.
Creative backed by an understanding of consumers
Food Polka was founded by Marta Fowlie, a creative director, culinary producer, and content strategist with a background in sociology, consumer behavior, and persuasion psychology.
That background shapes how we approach creative work.
People don’t buy food because a video has beautiful lighting and props. Consumers buy because something in the content catches their attention, creates an appetite or an instant need, communicates the property or quality they are after, or gives them a reason to choose one product over another.
Understanding what makes people notice, want, trust, and buy your product is part of our creative process.
We look at who the customer is, what matters to them, how they make decisions, and what the brand needs to communicate. Then we develop the creative strategy and content around those findings.
We also incorporate research and analysis to explore consumer behavior, market opportunities, competitive positioning, and creative directions. Combined with human experience and judgment, these tools help us develop more informed strategies and explore possibilities before committing resources to production.
The goal is to create content that supports brand positioning, customer engagement, conversion, and long-term trust, not simply follow visual trends.
Effective creative work starts with a conversation, not a production estimate.
BOOK a FREE 30-minute INTRO CALL📞
Full-service production without unnecessary complexity
Food Polka brings together experienced creative and production professionals based on the needs of each project.
Our capabilities span commercial food photography, video, tabletop direction, culinary production, food and prop styling, branded storytelling, and post-production.
This flexible production model gives brands access to the expertise and resources needed for their projects without having to hire and coordinate multiple independent vendors.
We handle creative development, production planning, crew, talent, styling, photography, video, and post-production.
One team. One coordinated process. From concept to delivery.
Projects are designed to be realistic in scope, clear in decision-making, and respectful of budgets and resources.
We don’t believe great work requires chaos.
Strategy comes before production
Before cameras, props, or timelines, we want to understand why the content needs to exist.
Who is it for? What does the brand need people to understand? What should they feel, remember, or do after seeing it?
Those answers shape the creative concept, and the creative concept shapes production.
This approach helps avoid spending money on content that looks impressive but doesn’t address the actual business problem.
We work best with brands that value:
- Clarity over volume
- Substance over aesthetics alone
- Thoughtful strategy over quick fixes
- Integrated creative and production services
- One accountable production partner from concept through delivery
Maximizing AI-supported creative production
AI has opened up new possibilities for how food and beverage brands can develop, produce, and use creative content. It makes complicated things more affordable.
At Food Polka, we combine traditional creative expertise with AI-supported content production.
AI helps us explore more ideas, develop creative directions, supplement photography and video production, and create content variations that would otherwise require additional time and production resources.
For example, existing photography and video assets can become the foundation for additional creative concepts, campaign variations, and content adapted for different marketing channels.
AI can also support early concept visualization, helping clients see and evaluate creative ideas before investing in a full production.
The result is more creative flexibility, more possibilities for using existing assets, and potentially lower production costs.
We don’t see AI as a replacement for photography, filmmaking, food styling, or human creativity. We see AI as another tool that can make traditional production more versatile, efficient, and affordable.
Not every project needs a full crew, an elaborate set, or an expensive production day. Sometimes the smarter solution is a combination of traditional production and AI-assisted creative work.
Our job is to figure out which approach makes sense for the project and the budget.
Flexible projects, packages, and ongoing retainers
Not every brand has the same needs, and not every business has the budget for a large advertising campaign.
Food Polka offers flexible ways to work together, from individual creative projects to comprehensive production packages and ongoing monthly retainers.
Services can include creative and consumer strategy, content planning, photography, video production, AI-supported creative development, and ongoing content production.
A business preparing to launch a product may need a complete creative concept and production. An established brand may need fresh photography and video for a campaign. Another company may need consistent content throughout the year without organizing a new production every month.
We build the scope around what the business actually needs, rather than selling the same production package to everyone.
By combining strategic planning, flexible production resources, and AI-supported workflows, we can explore solutions for different budgets without automatically sacrificing creative quality or effectiveness.
Clients can work with Food Polka on a single project, a series of campaigns, or an ongoing basis.
The objective is to make professional creative services more accessible, practical, and useful for businesses at different stages of growth.
Experience across food, beverage, and hospitality
Food Polka’s portfolio spans editorial, commercial, and branded content across photography, video, stop-motion, and short-form storytelling.
Notable work includes the two-time Webby Award-winning branded content series, Off the Menu for Hilton Hotels, as well as editorial work featured in a book, globally published by National Geographic.
Food Polka’s founder has collaborated with advertising agencies, production companies and studios, Hollywood celebrities, print and motion media companies, and emerging and established food, beverage, CPG, and hospitality brands.
Food Polka also draws on the extensive creative network Phoode®, founded by our founder. The platform provides access to top international creative and production professionals with specialized experience across the food and beverage industry.
Effective creative work starts with a conversation, not a production estimate.
BOOK a FREE 30-minute Intro Call 📞
You don’t need to have everything figured out before contacting us.
Maybe you’re launching a new product, trying to reach a different customer, planning a campaign, or wondering why your current content isn’t getting the response you expected.
Maybe you need a full production, a few strong creative ideas, a smarter content strategy, or ongoing support that fits your budget.
EMAIL US what you’re trying to accomplish, what you’re working with, and where you’re getting stuck.
We’ll help you figure out what makes sense, where creative production can make a difference, and how traditional and AI-supported approaches can work together to get more out of your investment. Food Polka offers food & beverage creative strategy and production services for all food and beverage brands and clients!