Cool campaign from Land Rover on the iPad

Land Rover's advertising campaign within The Daily Ipad application is one of the best things I've seen in this new space. This is a brand that is leading the way in this new brave iPad world when it comes to creating messages that are cool, engaging and entertaining. I love it.

Is this the coolest iPad magazine around?

Richard Brandson's much anticipated iPad Magazine 'Project' lives up it the hype. I really enjoyed the content, the visual effects and how it was conceived to use many of the wonderful features of new technology. I've been downloading many publications in the past months but I have to admit this one was a joy to read.

I particularly enjoyed the article "3D Tour of Secret Tokyo - The Inside Track to Japan's Mega-City from Five Key Creatives". It made me think of how this is the perfect type of application for people who love to travel like myself.

The next issue will be in the App Store Jan. 7th.

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.

Video and magazine mash up

Wow!!! Pepsi in the U.S. has inserted a video in CBS's Entertainment Weekly Magainze...
Click here to read the news on the Wall Street Journal Speakeasy blog. 

Below a short YouTube link that shows how it works.  Amazing!

World Digital Library

The Unesco has launched its World Digital Library that allows free access to amazing content from institutions like the Library of Congress, Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Qatar Foundation and Yale University Library.

Go to www.wdl.org to check it out.

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!

Developing a social occasion for snacks

Tomorrow, we're launching a new Doritos® advertising campaign in Brazil:

"Wanna share something with friends, share Doritos."  

Consumer studies with Brazilian millenials show that getting together with friends is one of their favorite things in life. Special moments after school hanging out with their best friends or on the week-ends before partying, those are the moments they cherish the most.  However, when it comes to snacking habits, the main consumption occasion is alone in front of a TV set.  There's a huge opportunity to develop a social snacking occasion among friends.  Doritos, being such a cool brand among millenials, has all the credentials to be the brand that Brazilians grab when they're snacking among friends.

The TV campaign, created by AlmapBBDO and produced by Rodolfo Vanni from Cia.de Cinema, uses funny situations that remind us that not everything should be shared with friends... if you wanna share something, share a Doritos.  We're also using two magazines that connect well with our target group:  Rolling Stones and Trip.  

The campaign has a very strong online component with a hot site created by cool digital agency CuboCC, a destination where teens are invited to upload pictures or videos of embarrassing situations they wouldn't want to share with their friends (or would they?). The five most voted situations will receive a year's supply of the world's most famous tortilla chip and a box with a special edition of Doritos with their picture on the bag (perfect for bragging rights). Take a look at www.doritos.com.br.

In the following weeks, more great news on Doritos...

A cool example of how books are evolving...

Yesterday, I was at a bookstore looking for a gift for our 7-year-old who has shown an interest in how the human body works. I found this amazing book called "The Human Body" an editorial partnership between DK (Dorling Kindersley) and Google. What's fantastic about this book is that each chapter comes with a key word that the reader can go online for additionbal information and cool 3D models and graphs. I later found out that this particular book is part of a family of books called e.guides, covering other topics like space, earth, weather, ancient civilizations, plants, insects...

This is definetely a great concept that shows how books are evolving. I love how they combined the editorial strength of a wonderful publishing house like DK (which I've been a huge fan of since I bought my first Eyewitness travel guide about 10 years ago) with the web capabilities of Google. Awesome!

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.

TV Networks adapting to the challenges of the large and small screen

Last Friday, I had lunch with two executives at Rede Globo, Brazil's largest and most influential TV network. Great conversation.  They mentioned two fascinating dynamics that are reshaping the TV business:  the large screen and the small screen.  

With high-definition and very large flat screens invading homes all over the country, the network has had to make significant investments in technology upgrades (small production imperfections are now more visible than ever).  On the other hand, because of the radical improvement in video capabilities of mobile phones, the emergence of the iPhone and the availability of a number of mobile devices designed specifically to watch TV programming and movies, a new model is emerging.  A mobile TV model that will have a major impact on how content is produced or re-edited and also have a significant impact on agencies and advertisers as we all learn how to optimize the message to fit on a small screen. With so much at stake, it's not surprising that Globo already has Brazil's most popular website offering streaming video called Globo Videos. 

A few ad-supported models offering streaming video of TV shows and movies are becoming mainstream, like already popular Hulu.

Similar to what happened on the internet, it will be exciting to see which marketers are first to crack the code on providing people with new and engaging experiences on the small screen. 

It's a brave new mobile world that allows content anywhere, anytime, in any pocket.

What's Next Event

Brazil's most influential advertising newspaper, Meio & Mensagem (which has a partnership with Advertising Age), celebrated its 30 years with a full-day event yesterday inviting speakers from the world's largest ad agencies to talk about the future. It was a great opportunity for me to listen to guys like Tom Bernardin (Leo Burnett), Laurence Boschetto (Draftfcb), Bob Greenberg (R/GA), Simon Sheerwood (BBH), Tom Carroll (TBWA) and Andrew Robertson (BBDO). The name of the event was What's Next, a rather ambitious name that is virtually impossible to properly answer. Even more so, if we take into account what the world has gone through in the past months. A lot was said on how consumers are becoming even more empowered, the impact of mobile and the prospects of an increasingly digital society. I didn't feel there was any particular wow in terms of what can potentially happen to the marketing/advertising landscape.

At the end of the day, what I personally enjoy at these types of events are real-life examples of how companies are finding new ways to interact, come out with innovative products and connect with people in ways that are remarkable. Bob Greenberg from R/GA took us through the interesting case study of how his interactive agency has helped create Nokia ViNe, a location-based content sharing service. A service where people can share routes, pictures, sounds and videos. Sounds like an exciting idea to record our traveling experiences and get tips on trips other people have made.

Read article on the Nokia ViNe initiative at MediaWeek.

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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Pre-Super Bowl buzz

Doritos® is back creating pre-Super Bowl buzz with its third edition of the 'Crash The Super Bowl' campaign.  Doritos innovated two years ago with a consumer-generated format that shook the industry and started a trend.  At the time, consumers were invited to submit 30" ads.  Two spots, were chosen online and aired during the big game.  This time around Doritos is offering a $1 million prize for a creative mind that is able to produce a Doritos TV spot good enough to top a viewer poll at the next Super Bowl.  I absolutely love how my colleagues at Frito-Lay are leading the Doritos Brand.  A bold, creative and completely consumer-centric marketing approach to a very cool brand.  Awesome work.

E-Ink

Last night at JFK before flying back to São Paulo, I bought the Esquire™ Magazine - 75th Anniversary issue - which comes with a cool e-ink cover. It's actually the world's first magazine to use e-ink. The magazine explains that the technology is similar to what we find in the screens of mobile phones and electronic readers using "...design circuitry thin and flexible enough to bend and small enough to draw a level of energy that would allow the battery to last at least 90 days." The end result still feels a bit like work in progress but it is a fascinating peak at how technology will certainly change the way we will read in the near future. It's easy to imagine that the rich media experience so ubiquitous online will soon be morphed into books, magazines or even in-store materials creating a entirely new reading experience.  Cool stuff. 

Check out a video on YouTube showing the magazine cover...

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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. 

Maybe it's time to give in...

Everyone who knows me will tell you how crazy I am for my BlackBerry.  But I have to confess that visiting the iPhone 3G App Store it made me think that it's time I give in and go for an iPhone. Anybody out there that uses a BlackBerry during the week for business and goes iPhone on week-ends?

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.

Internet Blackout!

Last Thursday Sao Paulo, Brazil's largest metropolitan area suffered an Internet blackout.  The result was total chaos for banking, e-commerce, stock trading... affecting pretty much every aspect of business.  

A few weeks ago, I went into one of my friend's blogs and was surprised to see a message saying it was deleted.  A few days later I spoke to him and found out that his blog had simply vanished and even after contacting Google, since he uses Blogger, they didn't restore his content.  He was obviously devastated. 

Two incidents to remind us how dependent we all are of technology and communication.  

Reading your favorite magazine online

I love magazines and I love the internet. So, when I read that Editora Abril - Brazil's largest publishing and printing company - had launched an online free trial service for their magazines, I went to check in out. Great service. You can easily flip through the pages and zoom in on a particular article.  A great way for Abril to increase its database of prospect readers (since you need to opt-in providing your e-mail account) and also an interactive way to increase their subscriptions since you can subscribe online after reading.  

It also made me think that the Brazilian public school system could benefit from this service for publications with educational content such as National Geographic Brasil or Revista Escola.

Click here to check it out.

Product Placement on The Apprentice

Last night, Brazil's version of 'The Apprentice' (called O Aprendiz) was aired on TV Record and our new product introduction Sensações® Ao Forno - Brazil's first baked potato chip - was one of the stars of the reality show. The task the contestants had to complete was to create an in-store activation for the launch at our our client WalMart.

The initiative, led by Carla Araujo and Ricardo Homs members of our Adults Snacking Team, is a good demonstration of how new media formats are being used to reach audiences in unexpected ways. The advantage of this particular case is that the product was perfectly inserted in the show's content. Because the program's host, Roberto Justus, is also one of Brazil's most celebrated advertising executives, from a marketing standpoint, the entire process worked very well. Justus is a master in balancing the client's needs while still delivering an entertaining show.