Promoting Innovation Challenge Brasil 2009

Quick video to promote PepsiCo's sponsorship of the Innovation Challenge Brasil 2009 coordinated by Insper - one of Brazil's most prestigious business schools. We're excited to see creative ideas from students from around the country on how to grow the Brazilian salty snacks category. The competition starts in the following weeks.

Cool backpacks made of waste

For the past 6 months, I have been personally involved in a very cool sustainability project that was finally launched. Here at PepsiCo Brazil, we are converting waste from potato chip bags into backpacks and messenger bags.

In association with TerraCycle, we're replicating in Brazil the upcycling model that has been working in the U.S. market for a years. The project serves both an environmental purpose removing tons of packaging waste from landfills, as well as, a social cause since revenues support 250 families in low-income communities who produce the items.

This is how it works...

TerraCycle is partnering with waste management cooperatives to collect our snack bags. Bags are fused into fabric which is then sent to Solidarium...

Solidarium coordinates the production of the backpacks which is carried out in low-income communities of Curitiba...

The items are then shippped to our first customer: Wal*Mart Brazil...

... and merchandised in an exclusive display that combines chip bags with the upcycled items.

One of the things I love about this project is that it is the result of true collaboration. Tom Szaky and Richard Perl from TerraCycle in New Jersey providing us with their amazing experience from the North-American market, Tiago Dalvi from Solidarium who brings their experience with social work, Wal*Mart who supported us since the beginning of the project, the Future Group who developed the in-store presence, Claudia Pires - the marketing manager who is working with me on the project and shares the same passion I have for sustainability - and Sergio Julio and Camila Feola from the R&D Team who are the packaging experts.

Another example of the power of collaboration. All of us working together with a dream of building a sustainable upcycling model for snack bags in Brazil.... with a nice social story behind it. 

Fun project.

Innovation Challenge Brazil

As you probably know by now through this blog, I truly believe marketers can benefit from a more collaborative approach to innovation. So, when Insper - one of Brazil's leading business schools - told us that they were bringing the Innovation Challenge to Brazil, we immediately decided to become one of the corporate sponsors.

Innovation Challenge is the world's largest competition involving MBA students who compete to present innovation ideas to sponsoring companies. Each company posts a specific challenge and students from around the country team up to generate innovative solutions that meet the brief. This is a wonderful opportunity for students to work on real case studies and companies have the opportunity of interacting with the next generation of leaders who will certainly bring a fresh perspective to their business models.

For two weeks, teams from different parts of Brazil will research, discuss and prepare their business plans. Submissions will be evaluated by a specialist panel leading to a final presentation on the Isper campus.

This initiative reinforces our commitment here at PepsiCo Brazil to support a more inclusive collaborative innovation process that started over a year ago with an online panel we have with 40 college students helping us with our brands targeting millenials.

Can't wait to see the results.

Selling apartments through Twitter

This week Tecnisa - a local construction company - sold its first apartment through Twitter.  

This is not an ordinary construction company, Tecnisa has built an amazing reputation as a business that gets digital like no one else in the marketplace.  They were the first Brazilian company to launch a corporate blog, they send podcasts to buyers using engineers explaining each phase of the construction and they have a solid track record of online sales.  Many people who are in the market to buy condos have been following Tecnisa on Twitter.   The news this week is that a man took advantage of a promotion announced through Twitter and purchased a R$500,000 / US$250,000 apartment, the one you see below.

The mastermind behind Tecnisa's digital strategy is Romeo Bussarello, a charismatic high-intensity marketing talent I have known for years.  

He's always a step ahead of the competition and you never quite know what he's up to next.  While so many of us marketers are figuring out how to better connect through social networks, this guy is making it happen.  

Great story.

More on Doritos' augmented reality

Cool site Contagiousmagazine.com featured a story today on our Doritos® Sweet Chili 

augmented reality story...