The Food Truck Movement

Food trucks are becoming quite a movement in cities around the World. One of my childhood memories, growing up in Virginia and Ohio, was the ice cream truck that showed up in my neighborhood after school. There was something irresistible about the bell ringing and kids lining up to choose their favorite flavors.

It's interesting to see how some brands are riding this new food truck wave. One example is the Oscar Mayer brand which is celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Wienermobile vehicle in New York City by unveiling the first Wienermobile Food Truck, in partnership with celebrity chef Tyler Florence to christen the new vehicle and continue the Good Mood Mission by making a $50,000 donation to Feeding America.














People gathered in Times Square for a chance to see the Wienermobile Food Truck, get a free Oscar Mayer Selects Beef Frank and enjoy special toppings created by Tyler. The new Wienermobile Food Truck will be giving consumers a chance to taste Oscar Mayer Selects Beef Franks throughout this summer.

A book was recently published called "Food Trucks - Dispatches and Recipes from the Best Kitchens on Wheels" , written by Heather Shouse, with reviews of the many food trucks that you can find in North America.

I'm very curious to see if gourmet food trucks are starting to show up in Latin American cities.

Making it easier for people to keep medical files

In the beginning of the year, I took my annual medical check-up. A few days later, I received an oversize envelope with the results of practically a full-day of tests.  How do those tests relate to previous check-ups?  I have no idea.  It doesn't help that I've never had a family doctor mainly because I've lived in 12 cities in three different countries.

The other day, I went for drinks with my brother-in-law James Maul, a techie who is very wired (every family seems to have one), who told me about Google Health - a service that allows people to store, organize, consult and share historical health data with a doctor or physical therapist.  It sounded like an interesting concept especially when you think how important health is to our lives and yet not everyone seems to keep good records.

Coincidently, on a flight back to São Paulo the other day, I read an interesting article in Time Magazine called "Paging Dr. Google - the search giant wants to help you compile your health records online. Is that a good idea?" written by Bonnie Rochman.

On the week-end, I ended up reading a little bit more about the service and I even found this very useful video resource in YouTube.... a pretty powerful concept.  

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Pepsi Refresh Project - start submitting ideas tomorrow

For those who haven't seen it, the Pepsi Refresh Project in the U.S. market is an amazing example of socially-responsible marketing. Pepsi is giving away millions in grants each month to fund great ideas.

Tomorrow, Jan. 13 is the day people can start submitting their projects of how to make the world a better place. Log on and participate. As a PepsiCo employee, I feel very proud of this type of initiative that pretty much reconceptualizes the role brands can have in the world we live in.

Spread the word.

The Day Spa experience

I've always believed that brands should aspire to provide people with experiences that define what the brand is all about.  In some cases, like in categories with low emotional connection, that is not easy.  On the other hand, some companies do an awesome job in experiential marketing, providing moments that transcend the products they sell. 

Today I had a wonderful experience at São Paulo's Spa L'Occitane.  As a birthday gift, my wife gave me a gift certificate for a 5-hour day spa.  I enjoyed every moment, from time off from everything just to read in a quiet place... to my first facial... to a great back massage.  Every once in while, it's wonderful to spend time on yourself.

This was certainly an experience that will have a lasting effect on the already positive perception I have for the L'Occitane brand.

It makes me wonder what exeriences we should be providing with the brands my team and I manage here in Brazil?  

Role reversal

I've always believed that role reversals are great ways to see the world with different eyes.  Many years ago, I took part in a role reversal process with our advertising agency which was a wonderful experience.  

Last night, my wife and I went to a PTA meeting at our local Waldorf School.  Our second grade teacher surprised all the parents with a role reversal session.  Parents were asked to line up to go into the class and we spent two hours going through a class routine.  I loved the exeprience in many ways.  It was very engaging.  First, it made me feel closer to what our 7-year-old goes through.  As the teacher talked us through the learning objective of each exercise, I felt that the experience will certainly raise my awareness on how I can help our daughter learn even more. 

As a marketing professional, it made me think that there is so much we can learn if we get out of our ordinary role and temporarily live a completely different one.

Role reversal....  certainly a powerful concept in any innovation process.

Videgame recreates the magic of the greatest band in history

Tomorrow's global release of "The Beatles: Rock Band" videgame for PlayStation3, Wii and XBox360 is a fantastic step forward in the mash-up between music experience, videogaming, documentary... revolutionizing the concept of home entertainment. This much anticipated release is a dream come true for music fans and gamers from around the world.

For those who don't have the game on their buy list, it's worth watching the Gametrailers review below.

A snapshot of consumers the moment they are interacting with the new Doritos flavor

A few weeks ago, I posted the story of our Doritos Sweet Chili launch and how we are using augmented reality on-pack. One of the very cool things about this technology is that, as a marketer, you can go online and see hundreds of photos of consumers the moment they released their Doritos Lovers. It's a glimpse of that very moment they were impacted by the technology. You see their expressions and how they interact with the virtual character.

How many marketing initiatives we end up deploying and never get to see the consumer the moment he is being impacted?

Looking at all the pictures on doritos.com.br is fascinating and it shows how technology can play an awesome role in terms of experiential marketing.... with the advantage that, in this case, we can actually see how our consumers are having fun with our product.

Pretty cool stuff.

Where's my Mini?

Last February, I heard that BMW had finally decided to officially open Mini Cooper dealerships in Brazil.  So even before the official launch, I made a down payment to secure my name on the waiting list and went to the online configurator to build my dream model.  A friend of mine and I shared a 48-hour test drive of a beautiful horizon blue Mini Cooper S which was a lot of fun.  I was told that my car would arrive in March.  A few weeks ago, I went to the opening of Sao Paulo's first show room but I'm still waiting for my very own Mini.  Last time I called, they told me it is scheduled to arrive late May.

The waiting has made me think that there's a huge opportunity for an import auto brand to provide an online personalized service where a buyer could visually see the different phases of the process.  The Mini brand is all about customization, from different choices of alloy tires to roof designs, mirror caps and bonnet stripes.  To reinforce this positioning, wouldn't it be cool to see images of your Mini being prepared for shipment, being loaded on the cargo ship, views of the journey, the unloading at the Port of Santos?   

It would certainly be a powerful marketing concept. 

Spicing up Doritos in Brazil

This weekend a fantastic spicy new Doritos flavor will be hitting stores all over Brazil:

Sweet Chili.

We're super excited with this new flavor for a number of reasons. First, because for many years we have been only selling the classic nacho cheese - our fastest-growing snack - and we took extra care to develop a second flavor that would deliver an awesome product experience to Doritos fans. We tested and re-tested dozens of flavors and sweet chili was the clear winner, a perfect combination of hot chili pepper with a gentle sweet secondary note.

Another reason for our excitement has to do with Doritos Sweet Chili's packaging. For this project we're working with one of Brazil's coolest creative shops, Cubo CC. We immediately fell in love with their graphic work using characters from the world of toy art, which are being called 'Doritos Lovers', over a pure silver background that will certainly stand out at the point of sale.

The great story is that these 'Doritos Lovers' come alive once consumers place the packaging in front of a web cam. The technology used is augmented reality. On the back of each package, there's a symbol on the upper right-hand corner that needs to be placed in front a web cam to release the Doritos Lovers. This is the first-time ever in Brazil that this technology is used on a the package of a consumer product.

Take a look at the video tutorial that shows how the release-your-doritos-lovers works....

The new online experience for both Doritos and the new flavor launch was also developed by Cubo CC and is, by far, the best online work in our portfolio. Click here to take a look.

Another interesting aspect of this initiative is that the entire process was co-developed and each step validated by a Millennial Online Collaboration Panel we have with 40 university students located in four different regions of the country. Through a social-network style application, we maintain a weekly interaction with these collaborators checking everything from brand activation concept ideas, choice of flavors, language that resonates with the target, to what is hot in the world of graphics. The result is a higher probability to make a strong emotional connection with Brazilian millennials (certainly the most difficult demographic to be relevant to).

To make all this happen we have, what I call, our Doritos marketing dream team: Roberto Angelino, Carla Araujo (who will now lead the kids snacking team), Alexandre Chiavegati and Carol Gormezano (who love everything digital). To add more spice to the team, we're bringing in Marta Oliveira, who has done a fantastic job with our other millennial brand Toddy. In R&D, we have Sergio Julio, who brings the product concepts to life. A true dream team.

Here in Brazil.... we're in love with Doritos!

World's Largest Football Gaming Tournament

It's absolutely fascinating to see the powerful evolution of online gaming and its potential as a marketing platform. A great example of how gaming can be built into a global experience is the FIFA Interactive World Cup 2009. 

Next week here in São Paulo, gamers will take part in a qualifying event at the Museu do Futebol trying to secure a place among at the FIWC09 Grand Final in Spain. Similar to the real FIFA World Cup, the FIWC 09 Online Qualification will be split as follows:

UEFA - The top 5 ranked players
CONCACAF - The top 2 ranked players
CONMEBOL - The top 2 ranked players
AFC - The top 2 ranked players
CAF - The top 1 ranked player
OCEANIA - The top 1 ranked player

Only one lucky gammer will be awarded the title of FIFA Interactive World Player 2009, earning a host of prizes from EA and PlayStation. Adding to the magic, he will attend the FIFA World Player Gala 2009 receiving a trophy from some of the World's greatest players. Pretty cool!

Music as a beautiful metaphor

Last night at a business offsite in Argentina, I participated in an amazing experience.  After an extensive day, we were led to a large room where members of a symphony orchestra were already seated.  We were asked to sit in chairs placed right next to the musicians.  I chose to sit next a cello since that is the instrument my elder daughter is learning at school.  At this point, a maestro introduced himself as Roger Nieremberg and took us through a beautiful musical journey.  However, this was not a regular concert.  

Throughout the evening, Mr. Nieremberg explained how everything we are hearing and observing was actually a great metaphor for a business organization.  The conductor led the musicians through a series of carefully crafted exercises that helped illustrate how each group of instruments harmoniously functioned within the orchestra and how the role of the maestro was to provide his personal vision of how the music should sound. He talked about how the same can happen in organizations, where functional teams also have to work together and how leaders must create a vision and inspire. 

I was struck by how much non-verbal communication goes on between the maestro and the musicians.  That any orchestra can perform without a conductor but how it takes an inspiring maestro who is passionate and engaging to transform ordinary classic music into a truly magical symphonic experience like I've never had before.  

Yes, leadership can be demonstrated in an innovative way.  An evening that only proves how, many times, it takes a beautiful metaphor to make an emotional connection on a theme that is so part of my day-to-day.

Click here to learn more about Roger Nieremberg and his Music Paradigm concept.

Toy Art haven in South Beach

Walking in South Beach this afternoon, I walked into Kidrobot, this fantastic store featuring the coolest collection of toy arts. In Sao Paulo, you find interesting toys here and there but I haven't seen such a great collection in one venue like this before. Back at th hotel, I went online to learn more about it. I found out the concept was created by designer Paul Budnitz in 2002. There are store in New York, San Francisco, Toronto, London and the Miami store I visited.

The website says that...
"Kidrobot merges urban street trends, fashion, and pop art to produce limited edition, collectible toys and apparel. Kidrobot products feature unique collaborations with top international artists with backgrounds as diverse as graffiti, fine art, fashion, industrial design, graphic design, illustration, and music."

Worth visting next time you go to South Beach...

Gearing up for FIFA World Cup 2014

São Paulo Futebol Clube is Brazil's most successful soccer team in recent years with six national titles. Their home stadium, Morumbi, is going through a major transformation in preparation for FIFA World Cup 2014.  The project is designed by Ruy Ohtake, one of Brazil's most celebrated architects. 

Friday, I went to visit the first visible change of this transformation, what is called the Morumbi Concept Hall__ a soccer-themed entertainment area similar to what you see in European and North American sport venues but unheard of in Brazil. A stunning Reebok Store (the largest in Brazil) and the Santo Paulo Restaurant where we had lunch overlooking the pitch are both in full operation. Next to the restaurant, UCI is building two cinemas. VISA has launched a service called PassFirst in which members have access to 20,000 seats and special treatment using their cards.  It's not enough just to go an watch a match, sports are a fantastic opportunity for brands to provide a powerful marketing experience.  The World Cup will certainly elevate the game in the area of sports marketing in this country.

On the outside, the stadium has plans to renovate the parking area and build a monorail that will link a nearby subway station to the stadium gates.  

Waiting for our new digital SLR camera

My wife and I have been wanting to get a digital SLR camera for quite a while. Speaking to a local photographer, he recommended I buy online at B&H. When we lived in New York, B&H was the best store for photo, video an audio. I wasn't sure if buying online from a U.S.-based store would work but I decided to give it a try. Next step was to choose a camera for us. The B&H website does a good job describing each camera's features with useful links to reviews and product demos. We settled for the Canon EOS 50D with the 18-200mm lens kit.

The experience so far has been very good. To cater to customers in Brazil, B&H has set up a website in Portuguese and when I called the customer service to track the order, the person who answered was bilingual. The package is scheduled to arrive next week.

I decided that in 2009 I want to reconnect to a few things I used to enjoy more in the past. Photography, being one of them. So at least I'm starting off the year with an exciting new camera.

Click below to see some of the capabilities of the Canon EOS 50D on a demo I found on YouTube by professional wildlife photographer Brutus Östling.

Getting teens to send a message to the World

This month, we're also rolling out an ambitious project for our Ruffles® Brand - Brazil's best-selling potato chip. It's called the Ruffles "Fala Aê! Tour" (translates as 'speak up'), a bus with two studios onboard that will be touring the country inviting teens to send a 15" message to the world. The bus will be uploading these teen videos to a YouTube channel and the Ruffles website. Ambitious because our intention is to create the world's largest teen manfistation to be broadcast online.

Our brand activation agency, the Future Group, has done a great job creating a fun studio experience. Through a touchscreen monitor, teens can choose among different virtual backgrounds and also select props (like hats, sunglasses...) to get into the spirit before recording.

This summer activation is part of the brand's communication platform "Make noise, eat ruffles". For the Ruffles, 'noise' has both a product and an emotional association. Noise linked to the chip's hard bite and noise that comes from teens making their voices heard.

Toddy summer activation with a touch of 'pimp my ride'

A while back on this blog we talked about one of the brands we have in our portfolio in Brazil called Toddy® - Brazil's iconic chocolate milk powder. The brand has been tremendously successful over the past years with a campaign that uses irreverent cows sparking a strong connection with Brazilian millenials. Because the consumption of chocolate milk is predominantly in the breakfast occasion, we decided we needed some creative thinking to take the brand beyond the kitchen table.

How could we expand the brand experience to cool places where our teen target hangs out in a way that was relevant and engaging?

The answer has been the Toddy Shake Tour, a mobile unit we have been testing throughout the year where consumers can experience the product in a variety of amazing shakes. For the upcoming Brazilian summer season, which pretty much starts after Christmas, we're coming out with the Toddy Shake Van. Imagine a 'pimp-my-ride'-style '71 VW Van completely decked out with cool wheels, flat-screen TVs and a hydraulic ceiling that creates a mini diner with the best chocolates shakes in town. Consumers can choose chocolate shakes with a touch of coconut, with bits of cookies, passion fruit or açaí (an energetic local berry).

The concept was created by the Future Group, a São Paulo-based brand activation agency we have been using for experiential marketing in collaboration with the Toddy Brand Team led by Claudia Pires and Victoria Gabrielli.

Our Toddy Van will be touring beaches along the coast of Rio and São Paulo, throughout the summer. We will also be taking the experience to orphanages and social projects in association with local NGO's.

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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São Paulo Celebrating the Beautiful Game

While the world collapses... I feel I need a break from so much bad news on the global economic meltdown. So, I decided to write about something light and fun. Like soccer. In a few days, the Museu do Futebol - Brazil's most important museum fully dedicated to the country's greatest passion - opens its doors at the Pacaembú Stadium in São Paulo. It was about time.  I'm obviously super excited to go and check it out.  

The opening of the museum is part of the stadium's pitch to be selected to host some of the 2014 FIFA World Cup matches.  The most likely contender in São Paulo is the Morumbi Stadium, which created some buzz earlier this year with newly renovated corporate booths and VIP area. Recently, they opened Santo Paulo Bar, Brazil's best located soccer-themed bar & restaurant overlooking the field, something very common in Europe and the U.S. but rather new to this part of the world. I hope we see more initiatives that celebrate the beautiful game and offer fans a better experience.   

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. 

Gourmet-style mobile food concepts

A cool trend is showing up in big cities all over the world.... gourmet-style mobile food concepts. Forget the typical hot dog stand, we're talking high-quality food. One very cool example is the DessertTruck in Manhattan. This food truck, created by Jerome Chang, a former pastry sous chef at Le Cirque and Chris Chen, converts the world of fine-dining desserts into a sidewalk experience. It's located at St Marks Place (8th St) and 3rd Ave.

Another example is Skillet, located in Seattle (a place known for innovative food retail concepts), which serves high-end locally-sourced dishes. I love the retro-looking silver Airstream trailer.

I'm trying to convince my organically-correct gourmet wife, to set something up like this in São Paulo.  In a city where people like to go out for a work lunch, traffic is terrible and there's not always a lot of time for a good meal, do you think the concept would work here?