Another cool augmented reality idea... from Doritos in Brazil

After the tremendous success we've been having with Doritos Sweet Chili and our augmented reality packaging, our digital agency CuboCC came up with another cool idea.  This time, they asked us if we wanted to put together the world's largest augmented reality event.  Why not?

Take a look at the video and see who appeared on top of the PepsiCo office building the other day?

A simple approach to video recording

Don't you just love it when you se a killer product idea that completely changes the game in a given category.  Well it happened last week when I bought a Flip Video Camera.  Ok.... I know.... I was late to the game.  I admit it.  Flip has taken video recording and made it into a very simple, cool, experience.  A little bit like what iPhone has done to mobile phones.  Just a few simple buttons and you're ready to tell your story on YouTube.  A lesson in simplicity that all marketers can learn from.

Click here to read about the buzz that's being generated by Flip...

World's Largest Doritos making more headlines

Our World's Largest Doritos bag is making headlines around the globe. We tracked online buzz from Spain, France, Argentina, Venezuela and today I was happy to see the story make it to Advertising Age. 

Big bag... big news.

The World's Largest Doritos

Weeks ago our Doritos Brand Team, Alexandre Chiavegatti and Carol Gormezano, told me about a social network community of Doritos-lovers who were asking for a 5kg bag. So, we decided to make it happen.
















This past week dozens of giant bags were sent to members of the community as you can see in this first video.



The growth of social networks is fascinating and the challenge for marketers is how to leverage this universe in a non-intrusive way.

The team decided to have a little more fun and ended up producing a 3m bag with over 132kg of Doritos - obviously the largest in the world. The massive bag was presented at one of the coolest teen events, it went for a ride all over town in the back of pick-up truck and it was hauled up a five-story building. The buzz from both initiatives has been amazing.

In just a few days, over 11,000 mentions in blogs/twitters/sites and over 44,000 people saw the giant Doritos video we posted on YouTube.

This is the video of the giant Doritos...

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A brand all about guy gets girl

The new site for Axe® body deodorant in Brazil is graphically awesome, perfectly on target and is generating a lot of buzz within the local blogsphere.  For those who manage teen brands, this is definitely work worth learning from.  As you know, the brand is all about boy gets girl and the site embodies that from every angle possible.  There's even a very cool online game called 'Billions' that tests a guy's ability to get girls (I'm happy that our Doritos® brand is featured as a billboard within the game).  

Axe is a great example of a brand laser-focused on a very defined demographic with a perfectly crafted positioning. Well done. 

Being part of something big....

At a time when everyone seems to be watching the Summer Olympics on TV, it makes you want to get up and do something.  Do more sports.  Be part of something big.  With that spirit, I really like the Nike Human Race.  For those who haven't heard the buzz, this coming Aug. 3st , Nike is putting on the World’s largest running event. The 10k event will be the ultimate runner experience... open to anyone, anywhere. Nike is hosting race events in 25 cities around the world, including São Paulo. If where you live is not on the list, it's okay because by logging on to nikeplus.com, every city and every road can become a race-day course.  Big, global, just like the Olympics, but where everyone can take part of the show.  Great initiative.

A Cultural Movement Celebrating Brazilian Bar Food

Saturday night I had dinner with Eduardo Maya and Eulália Araujo, the visionary founders of an annual culinary contest to find the very best Brazilian bar food, called Comida di Buteco.  What started off as a culinary contest 9 years ago is now an amazing cultural movement celebrating Brazil's botequims - the popular name for the authentic Brazilian pub - and the colorful food served with beer or cachaça. If Spain has the tapas, Brazil has the petiscos or tira-gostos as they are called.  It all started in Belo Horizonte, a city known as the bar capital of the country and is now spreading to other cities.

Eduardo Maya is a charismatic guy and an enthusiastic advocate for elevating Brazilian bar gastronomy - often considered low cuisine - to the respectful place it deserves in the country's food culture.  He also talks passionately about how this movement has exponentially improved the lives of dozens of families who own these bars and given them a sense of affiliation beyond what he had initially envisioned.

To give of an idea of how popular this movement is becoming, in the 2007 edition, 130,000 people voted for their favorite petiscos in 40 selected bars and the final event, which closes off the month-long Comida di Buteco, gathered over 500,000 people in a week-end of music and the best Brazilian bar food.  It ends with an awards ceremony.

Click here to read an article that ran on The New York Times on the Comida di Buteco movement.

Another great example of how certain cultural movements have the powerful force of mobilizing people behind a cause. 

Cultural Movement vs. Advertising Campaign

I have to confess that a few months back when I saw Argentina's Doritos TV Campaign 'Que Vuelvan Los Lentos' (Bring back slow dancing) I didn't quite get it.  In a terrible brand manager attitude I kept asking myself what was the product link between slow dancing and our famous tortilla chip brand.  

This week in London, I had the opportunity to watch Carlos Menendez, PepsiCo Snacks' Marketing Director for Argentina/Chile, present the strategy and I realized how wrong I was and how powerful the campaign really is.  Well, let me step back.  It's not really a campaign.  The Doritos Team in Argentina launched a cultural movement.  In his own words a 'crusade'.  A crusade to bring back slow dancing to a generation that is all about electronic music.

The new agency we are working with in Brazil, Strawberry Frog, talks a lot about the need to evolve the traditional advertising campaign and create cultural movements where brands embrace a cause... and hopefully inspire others to follow, interact, express themselves, take part in.  A powerful concept.

And that's exactly what happened in Argentina, Doritos did launch a TV movement to bring back slow dancing but the movement created a life of its own.  Thousands of communities were formed in social networks, dozens of radio stations and clubs altered their music programming and a slow-dancing flash mob (probably the world's first) took place at the Buenos Aires planetarium, bringing thousands of teens together.

Thanks Carlos Menendez in showing me the power of a true cultural movement, where the brand plays a strategically important role as an enabaler in bringing a memorable experience to consumers.  And how the message is just a spark that can transform in something very big. Great story.

What is the first word that pops into your mind....?

Alexandre Van Beeck's blog this week talked about a cool new online tool called Brand Tags. It's a website, created by a guy called Noah Brier, that shows you famous brand logos and asks you to type in the first word or phrase that pops into your head. The site is fascinating both to see what people have posted and also to participate yourself.  I couldn't resist and spent a lot of time last night checking out people's perception of the world's greatest brands. 

It's one more example of how the internet has become a powerful tool for consumer insights.

Check out what Wall Street Journal's Buzz Watch has to say about Brand Tags.

How do you track Brand Buzz?

How do you measure brand buzz? It's interesting to see how ad agencies are using Google™ Trends to track the amount of people searching certain words or brands during a specific PR or communication campaign.  A great way to check buzz. The way Google explains the service is rather cool: "...a snapshot of what's on the public's collective mind."

A Pretentious Name that is Causing a Lot of Buzz

I have been intrigued by a small storefront that goes by the rather pretentious name of "O Melhor Bolo de Chocolate do mundo" - The World's Best Chocolate Cake. A few friends recommended the place and it's getting pretty good press. From a pure buzz factor, I have to admit the strategy of making such a compelling claim is working. So, we decided to go there this afternoon to check if the cake lives up to its name.  Once there, I found out that it's actually a franchise of the original that started in Lisbon in 1987 created by Carlos Braz Lopes. He used to own a restaurant that became famous for the chocolate cake that was on the menu. The cake became so famous, that he decided to open a shop entirely dedicated to his secret recipe. I particularly love when a business model is focused in positioning itself as the very best in a particular category. The model couldn't be simpler. It's all about the chocolate cake that comes in only two options:  traditional with 53% cocoa and a bitter version with 70% cocoa, both made with Valrhona® premium French chocolate (which my wife knew from Nigella's cookbooks). The coffee and a special mint/citrus tea blend were developed to harmonize with the cake. The São Paulo shop is very small, so it was inevitable to hear people from the other tables discussing whether they thought the chocolate cake was or not the very best.  I'm definitely not a chocolate cake expert, so I can't tell you if it is or not the world's best.... but I have to say... it's the best I ever had. 

Spreading the word on the benefits of Oats

This past week our Quaker marketing team felt the power of TV.  Last Friday, Brazil's highest-rating news program called Globo Reporter - a weekly investigative report format equivalent to CBS 60 Minutes - aired a special report on the health & wellness.  At the office, we were thrilled that the show highlighted the heart-health benefits of oats as a functional food that helps reduce cholesterol levels, one of the risk factors of cardiovascular disease.  The TV show generated tremendous buzz.  Sales of our Quaker line picked up this week. Erika Salgado, our Quaker® Marketing Mgr. and Adriana Ribeiro, our Foods Marketing Dir, both were particularly happy since the content was generated from clinical studies and PR efforts they have been leading. This morning, I went for my periodic cholesterol check-up and ended up doing my own little personal survey. I asked the nurse about oats and she spontaneously and enthusiastically talked about the TV show and how everyone was asking her about the benefits of oats.  

The message is always stronger when it comes from editorial content.