Events
The Lay’s® Locavore Alert … a real potato farm could be coming to your town!
High noon at the Lay's event in Chicago
A “sip” to integrated marketing.
I raise a cup of coffee to Dunkin’ Donuts, for producing one truly innovating marketing campaign. It all started with a “Guess What” contest, then it led into a video, interactive website and customer interaction. What I am talking about is MissionFresh.com. DD launched a contest that asked people, “Something Fresh is coming. Guess what it is.” And boy was it FRESH! DD came up with an idea of producing a giant size graffiti mural in Times Square; it involved a team of 4 street artists that worked night and day for an entire 72-hour marathon session (while drinking lots of DD coffee, of course).
Using old school and new school art techniques, they came up with a design that really took their creativity to another level (60′ x 40′), literally. DD filmed the entire production of the mural, provided the video, and featured behind-the-scenes comments and bios of each of the artists on this site. After enjoying the video and reading more about the project, you can even take a stab at being a graffiti artist and create a mural of your own. How coolatta is that?
Fun and funny at the National Restaurant Association Show
The winning Tor Rey bag
Every trade show has its favorite Show Bags–those holders of the still-popular paper brochures, promotional tschotskes and general stuff. At the National Restaurant Association Show this past weekend, the most popular were messenger bags with wide straps worn sideways across the chest with the bag resting on the hips and butt. I predict the messenger show bag will be everywhere next year—you heard it here first!
Best in show and everywhere: TOR REY, a roomy red messenger bag
Runner up: Front of the House, a lime green messenger bag
Honorable mention: Alibaba, great design on a large, plastic coated orange bag
Now, of the 20 or so people I stopped to ask about their TOR-REY bags, not one said they were a real prospect for the company’s food equipment products. At least they carried the brand.
Love the buffalo
OK, you gotta love the restaurants that go for the outsized, outlandish and just plain out of this world ways to proclaim their individuality. Hence, the need for life-size, animated characters that speak to you while they are 1) nodding and waving 2) shakily holding a tray of drinks that appear about to fall off or 3) speaking and blowing smoke out of their large nostrils while waving their head back and forth in a menacing manner –that would be the talking buffalo head. Characters Unlimited would be happy to supply you with those and dozens more to amuse your guests. I think Charlie Trotters needs to lighten up and go for the smoke-exhaling buffalo immediately.
My First NRA Show
Nothing could prepare me for the National Restaurant Association NRA Show 2010 at Chicago’s McCormick Place. Being the largest restaurant and hospitality show in the western hemisphere, with more than 1,600 exhibitors from 100 countries and a 200-page Exhibit Guide & Program containing all the information you need to navigate the show can be an overwhelming experience.
Here are a few of my favorites and must-see booths and pavilions:
Ashby’s Sterling Ice Cream- A rich, creamy, old-fashioned ice cream parlor with new product ideas and award-winning flavors. Try the Amaretto Cherry, made with homegrown cherries from Michigan. Delicious! Flavor trends also include, pomegranate and a five-flavor Spumoni.
Vienna Beef- It wouldn’t be a Chicago food show without the official Chicago-style hot dog! Vienna had a line down the aisle with lots of show buzz and excitement.
Taylor – Promoting their new multi-flavor slushy equipment with simple operational features allowed me to mix four different flavors; raspberry, energy boost, blueberry and strawberry into one refreshing slushy. Every gas station in America should have one of these nifty gadgets.
Red River Valley Red Potatoes- These potatoes are from The Red River Valley of North Dakota and Minnesota and are grown in some of the darkest and richest soil in the world. I found these potatoes to be firm, sweet and non grainy like most red skins. Impressive.
Grecian Delight-I had the opportunity to sample one of Grecian’s low calorie sandwiches made with whole-wheat flatbread, Lebanese chicken shawarma and skhug- it was love at first bite.
Gluten-Free Pavilion- This trend is definitely here to stay. The section was packed with 33 suppliers of gluten-free breads, crackers, baked goods, pastas and even beer. Conte’s Pasta had great tasting gnocchi and ravioli to sample, Violet Family Products was sharing their scrumptious pizza crust and Crunchmaster was handing out their multi-seed crackers that had the perfect amount of seasoning on each cracker.
Food Trucks Pavilion- This section promoted the latest in food truck technology for chefs and entrepreneurs who want to avoid the expense of an actual restaurant. Fun idea!
Still Evolving: Sustainability Marketing in the Energy Sector
The ability to market sustainability brings to mind the color grey more than it does the color green. Grey as in grey space. Fuzzy territory. This thought emerged Wednesday at the Chicago BMA Breakfast Roundtable in which CBD’s Lori Colman lead a panel discussion entitled From Green to “Greenwashing” : How B2B Companies are Succeeding (and Failing) at Marketing Sustainability.”
Lev Goldberg, Marketing Director for Constellation NewEnergy, shed light on the areas of uncertainty. As a retail energy provider selling to businesses in all eligible markets, Lev noted that Constellation NewEnergy encounters a broad range of energy conservation and sustainability visions developed by corporations. “Most companies have set goals for sustainability, but they don’t know how to go about accomplishing them,” said Lev. “They don’t know what they are looking for. And they don’t have a plan.” Lev went on to mention that this lack of clear understanding about solutions keeps corporations from proactively asking about sustainable energy products. Instead, energy sustainability messages are driving most of the market interest. Constellation NewEnergy is helping to overcome this barrier by producing a series of environmentally-focused collateral pieces that provides companies with a list of ways they can help companies meet sustainability needs.
Social Media Feeds Winter Olympics Addict
I admit it. I’m a self-confessed Winter Olympics addict and always have been. This year NBC has been feeding this voracious habit across their networks sufficiently enough that I actually know the channel numbers for MSNBC and CNBC on my cable box. I’m DVRing the daytime events, staying up late to watch the extended coverage. And if that’s not enough, my iPhone has yet to leave my side; NBC has created one of the best iPhone apps I own.
Though they have been able to simplistically organize all the info you would expect on a deep website into an app easily negotiated on a mobile device, they have also put us in the same room to eavesdrop on the star-studded athletes thoughts and for fans to respond with encouragement and accolades. Continue reading
