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. 

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.

Spreading the Doritos Lovers story....

We can't get over the amazing buzz being generated by our new Doritos Sweet Chili launch and the use of augmented reality on pack (which we covered in a previous post). We're still filling the distribution pipeline and it has been great to see the amount of traffic to the website with people uploading pictures of them in a front of their webcams 'unleashing' the Doritos Lover.

To explain the concept and help spread the Doritos Lovers story, this film was produced....

Cebiche could just be the new sushi

In the gourmet world, Peru is a rising star.  From the Peruvian influence of NOBU to the amazing work of celebrity chef Gaston Acurio, this is a cuisine that is making headwaves all over the globe.  The good news for me, is that Sao Paulo now has a newcomer to its vibrant restaurant scene and it's called: La Mar Cebicheria Peruana.    

My wife and I were invited to its soft opening and wow....  the cebiche is insane!

For those who still have doubts that cebiche is the new sushi, this place is definetely worth a visit.

Two new spots for Doritos

Two new 30" spots in our Doritos campaign in Brazil.

The strategic objective is to reinforce Doritos as Brazil's favorite snack to share among friends. The cohort we're targeting our millennials. The campaign shows situations where someone 'shares' a rather embarrassing situation among friends. In one case, a girl recognizes who she thinks is a celebrity in a mall or a guy who shows off his tuned up car in the parking lot of a conveniene store. The campaign theme is "Wanna share something with firends, share a Doritos."

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!

Two cases on Cross-Marketing

For those interested in cross-marketing, a TV program was aired this week on TV Ideal - a cable channel targeting the Brazilian marketing and advertising community.  Two cases were featured on the show, Toyota Hilux which teamed up with the National Geographic Channel to develop cool editorial content on an expedition across the Amazon and a recent experience we are having at PepsiCo with Sensacoes Ao Forno with a touch of Gallo Olive Oil.

Click here to watch the TV program (in Portuguese).

Giving new reasons for health-conscious Brazilian consumers to add more oats to their day-to-day lives

When asked what brand comes to mind when consumers think oats, Brazilians all over the country will immediately say Quaker.  Over the years, through the commissioning of Brazil's first clinical study on the heart-health benefits of oats and the consistent work of professional marketing, we have been teaching consumers and opinion leaders about how oats can help fight heart clogging cholesterol contributing to a balanced lifestyle.

Last year, we started working with agency StrawberryFrog which created a new campaign that is helping to accelerate growth with a message that combines both the functional benefits of oats with a more emotional tone.  The campaign is called 

Quaker - The Grain of Goodness.  

More and more people recognize the power of this little super grain but one of the barriers of consumption is that people don't always find oats very convenient.  Little time in the morning to prepare an oatmeal porridge or forgetting to sprinkle oats over fruits or yogurts are a few of the reasons why people don't consume more.  To provide oats in a more convenient format, a few years ago a line of oat bars were launched - our fastest-growing SKUs.  Proof that there is an opportunity to provide more convenient ways for people to eat oats.  

We're very excited that this week, we started test-marketing in Campinas (an hour drive from Sao Paulo) an entire line of convenient on-the-go oat-based products that will certainly create new reasons and occasions for health-conscious Brazilian consumers to add more oats to their day-to-day lives.   We're calling this line Quaker De Bolso  (which translates as Quaker In-Your-Pocket).

The line is made up of three nutritious products: 

Quaker Oatmeal cookies in three flavors:  Apple & Cinnamon, Granola, Raisins

Quaker Granola Express, a fun on-the-go drinkable format which allows people to have granola while they are driving, biking or working out.  These new granolas come in two flavors:  raisins, banana & honey

Quaker Minis - a completely new concept - bite size oat-based multi-grain mini cookies. One, is a mix of oats and cocoa and the other, a unique mix of 4 super grains: oats, quinoa, flax seed and wheat germ with a delicious touch of honey.  We designed this product to offer the convenience of portion control which we believe will become a hit especially among busy women who want a nutritious break but don't always have the time. I particularly love this concept.  

Well, here's our entire Quaker De Bolso line.  

Now consumers can have the goodness of oats anytime, anywhere.  

This launch was developed under the leadership of Adriana Ribeiro, Erika Salgado and Rodrigo Viselli, three marketing stars, as well as, Jose Oliveira and Maria Eugenia Cavenaghi on the Innovation team, who put their hearts and souls in the project.  We also counted on the inspiring support from Jesus Velasquez from the Mexican team who brought a wonderful perspective from a successful Quaker operation. On the technical side, Sergio Julio and his team added the R&D magic to bring the concepts to life. A fantastic team!  

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.

VISA scores with Ronaldo

A few minutes ago, Ronaldo - Brazil's most famous soccer player - socred his first goal playing for Corinthians. For those who follow the beautiful game, there was a huge expectation all over Brazil about Ronaldo's comeback after over a year away from the pitch. Corinthians, is more than a team, it's practically a religion for millions of fans, so signing a guy like Ronaldo was the big story this season.

The marketing question behind today's match - the classic Corinthians X Palmeiras - was what company would appear on Corinthians' jersey? Until a few days before the match, there were all sorts of speculations about who would be the main team sponsor. Well... it's VISA, and the images of Ronaldo's will be in all papers and websites tomorrow morning. Great timing.

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...

Back up system for our MacBook

Ever since we bought our MacBook a few years ago we have been carelessly using it without any back up system which obviously made me very worried. 

So, enough of procrastination.  I just got back from São Paulo's new Apple authorized dealer called A2YOU where I finally upgraded our MacBook to the Mac OS X Leopard which comes with Time Machine. Time Machine automatically keeps a copy of everything we have on our Mac... our digital photos, music and my wife's recipes. What's really cool is that it not only keeps a copy of every file, it remembers how our system looked on any specific day, which means we can revisit how our computer appeared in the past.  I wish I had the same capabilities with the computer we use at the office.

I also bought the Western Digital My Passport for Mac, a portable hard drive that I found simple to use and easy to carry around on future business trips.  A great combination for peace of mind. No more worries.

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!

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...

True North on Oscar Night

One of the downsides of living in Sao Paulo is that I miss the advertising break during big media events like the Super Bowl (which makes me realize that cable operators could easily benefit from a pay-per-view package including the original advertising targeting the local marketing and advertising community). I'm in Miami this week getting away from the carnival frenzy back home. So, I was able to watch the Oscar's ceremony on Sunday night with some friends in Coral Gables.

Knowing True North - Frito-Lay's new line of premium natural nut snacks - was scheduled to make a huge impact at the Oscar's, I took some bags I bought at Whole Foods to share with my friends (they loved the pistachio crisps).

The campaign is awesome, telling stories of real people who are doing something extraordinary with their lives.... finding their true north. The TV spot I particularly loved was called “Inspiration Café,” which tells the inspiring story of Lisa Nigro, the founder of a restaurant that serves the homeless and provides job training and fellowship to its customers.

Beautifully inspiring...

Dinner with Tom Szaky

Last night, I had dinner with Tom Szaky, founder of TerraCycle - a business model created while he was in Princeton - that is completely redefining the concept of recycling. Cool guy with cool ideas. Tom is leading an amazing green revolution, enlisting consumer brigades all over America to collect used soda bottles, plastic bags and candy wrappers and transforming this garbage into amazing products, from fertilizers to messenger bags to backpacks.

Last year, Inc. Magazine called Terracyle
'The Coolest Little Start-Up in America'.












Tom Szaky's fascinating TerraCycle story is truly inspirational. Click below to see an overview I found on YouTube. It will certainly make you look at garbage in whole new way.

Online destinations I enjoy...

A few online destinations I enjoy...

Scott Goodson's Writings by the inspirational creative mind behind StrawberryFrog__ an agency that is all about the power of sparking cultural movements.  

IDEO Eyes Open defines itself as a gathering place for interesting experiences that resonate with emerging themes in our lives, our communities, and our world. 

Trendwatching is always a fun place to go to read about trends that are emerging around the world captured by over 8,000 spotters.

For those you have a connection to Brazil and read in Portuguese, Update Or Die is an awesome example of the power of collaboration.  A new generation of Brazilian talents, in the field of advertising, journalism, marketing and technology have teamed up to produce one of the country's most influential blogs. 

Also try Alexandre Van Beeck's blog. A new voice who has a good eye for insights, marketing trends and how new technologies are reshaping the landscape. I can always count on Van Beeck's blog to find something new.

O Pequi is a wonderful blog that celebrates design, photography and fashion.  A nice pause after a week of powerpoints and business proposals.

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.  

How can GPS applications make us feel more safe?

A member of my innovations team was taken at gunpoint by two men while she was parking in her grandmother's garage.  She was then taken by two men and held hostage in a deserted area of São Paulo for an hour, while one of the assailants drove off to an ATM machine with her card. The terrible incident made me realize that there is a tremendous opportunity for mobile operators, police officials and banks to collaborate in the development of GPS applications that could potentially minimize the risk of something like this happening.  I recently read an article in Wired about a service in the U.S. called SafetyNet, built to be used on the Android Platform. You select bad neighborhoods in the SafetyNet's map, so in case you end up in a sketchy part of town, your phone automatically switches into what they call 'watchdog mode'.  In case you feel threatened, you just shake the phone and an alarm goes off sending your location to friends and family.  It sounds like an interesting concept.  However, in a city like São Paulo where you can run into a dangerous situation practically anywhere, I'm sure the service would need to be redesigned.  

With the proliferation of location-aware phones, it's only a matter of time for someone to develop a killer application that can provide a better sense of safety.

Japanese Tin Toys

Last week in Orlando Florida, I had the opportunity of visiting a wonderful little exhibition of Tin Toys, which were incredibly popular in Japan in the 50's and 60's.  Tin aliens, robots, astronauts and vehicles all part of  Tin Toy Master Teruhisa Kitahara's collection, who runs seven museums in Japan with over 50,000 tin toys,

For anyone who has an appreciation for Japanese design and its influence in pop culture (from mangas to fashion to annimated film), will be fascinated with these vintage toys. 

These are a few photos I took of the exhibition...