Idaho’s culinary promotion in Tijuana

On November 24th, in coordination with the Idaho State Department of Agriculture, we celebrated a  Thanksgiving dinner  which representatives of supermarkets, restaurants, media in Mexico attended, in addition to Thomas Reott, Consul General of the United States in Tijuana. 

 
“The objective was to show the richness and variety of food produced in Idaho, as a reflection of its natural and industrial characteristics that allows it to create more than 185 commodities and that place it in the top 10 of the main agricultural producers in the United States” (siempre la noticia, 2021) 

The Idaho Russet potato was  highlighted, as well as the yellow onion. 

The  Chef in charge of developing recipes was Javier Plasencia with more than 50 k followers on Instagram. 

Chef Javier Plasencia created a 5-course menu incorporating Idaho ingredients in a unique way:  

  • Mediterranean Mussels in an Idahoan mashed potato fake shell with smoked oysters and russet potato foam 
  • Russet Potato soup with AgroPur cheddar cheese and bacon 
  • The classic table-top Caesars salad with yellow onion croutons and AgroPur parmesan cheese (Tijuana recipe) 
  • Double R Ranch USDA Choice Top Sirloin cooked slowly in a mustard marinade, sweet smoked chili peppers and yellow onions, served with a russet double-baked potato with three AgroPur cheeses, black truffles, and plant-based Melt butter 
  • Apple crisp made with plant-based butter Melt Organic and ice-cream 
  • We had 26 attendees including produce buyers from Calimax, Coliman, Importadora -Exportadora de Tijuana, and Superchivas, among others. Local chefs from the region and local craft breweries also attended as well as nine Tijuana media guests including those from the local press.  Additionally, public relations and key food influencers on social media from the area were among the guests, publishing photos and notes about the event.   
  • SOCIAL MEDIA PRESENCE 

Good Carbs

IPC had the initiative to promote Idaho Potatoes as a healthy carbohydrate since one of the biggest challenges of potatoes is the belief that carbohydrates provide negative effects in diets. Through  athletes such as Paola Longoria, Charlie Sarmiento and Oso Negro a “good carbohydrates” campaign was launched. 

The biggest challenge was to find the athletes and spokesperson for the campaign, since they had to show a good image and be an example for consumers. We managed to contact Paola Longoria, one of the best racquetball players in the world, with 334mil followers on Instagram, Paola has been talking about the IPC for 3 months and has made recipes, routines, and publications with more than 1700 likes about the benefits of potatoes. Charlie Sarmiento has carried publicity on his networks and has given talks on health and sports with more than 480 reproductions. While IPC became an official sponsor of the Ultra Marathon “Black Bear” with whom we will have advertising throughout 2021 and until the race in January 2022 with banners of the account in training and advertising on social networks of the race. 

Potato Lover’s Month – Calimax 2020

The Potato Lover’s Month promotion was an exhibition contest that was held from October 17th to November 17th in stores of the retail chain CALIMAX, with the objective of increasing visibility and sales of Idaho potatoes in 89 stores in the region of Baja California as well as guide the consumer in the selection and purchase of Idaho potatoes. 

The biggest challenge throughout this activity was to be able to have visibility due to the contingency of COVID-19

Potato Lover’s Month was achieved through retail marketing activities, such as: 

  • Massive exhibitions in-store 
  • Social media contest in which more than 20,000 people were reached. It is worth mentioning that photos of stores were updated daily to boost consumer voting, resulting in an average of 400 interactions per store. 
  • Chef Bernardo González’s cooking recipe on the social media of Calimax (on Facebook, Nov 04th), with a reach of 7.2 thousand people. The invitation to see this recipe was made through Facebook-Story with a reach of 3.3 thousand people. 
  • Newsletter targeting consumers with click rate of 23.1%, and an increase of 40% in votes for their favorite store. 

The winning Potato Lovers Month stores were Cortes, Chapultepec and Xochimilco with sales increases ranging from 44 to 54.98%  

Paola Longoria at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics

Paola Longoria, our Idaho Potatoes brand ambassador, competed in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics giving IPC visibility in the world’s most important events and with the challenge of spreading information about nutrition in Idaho Potatoes.

This effective campaign was an extension of the sponsorship that IPC has with the athlete, where she shares 3 stories and 1 post on Instagram and Facebook every month. This communication plan was used for the long-awaited world event, where Paola recorded with the Idaho Potatoes mascot, “Spuddy buddy”, tagging IPC’s official social networks. Her Instagram account currently has more than 355,000 followers and a circle of more than 1,587,147 followers on Facebook, a community that continues to grow thanks to the athlete’s popularity.

The campaign successfully included stories within the sporting events and photographs in emblematic places of the venue, which exceeded 3,928 likes on Instagram and 11,344 likes on Facebook.

IDAHO POTATOES COMMISSION “WITH YOU” CAMPAIGN

Imalinx executed a #StayHome campaign on behalf of the Idaho Potato Commission with the goal of creating a unique consumer program that encouraged potato consumption. 

The proposal was executed by renowned chefs on the Mexican border: Adria Marina, Bianca Castro and Javier Plascencia, who developed home cooking recipes with Idaho potatoes as the main ingredient. The chefs used different digital platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram Lives and YouTube where they spread their own recipes.  

Likewise, the activity was merged with a retail marketing strategy, with printed QR codes which, send the user to one of the recipes developed by the chefs. These eight recipes were published at the official site in a new section “Recipe of the week”. 

The proposal was accompanied by a communication activity in Calimax, a supermarket chain in Tijuana, where different content with Idaho potatoes was published through social networks, as well as radio and television ads on its internal channel. As a surprise activity, people also participated in an activity to win exclusive prizes for the brand from their homes through platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. 

Potato Lover’s Month

In conjunction with the Retail Chain Calimax, the exhibition contest between the stores was held in all its formats with Idaho Potatoes (bags or bulk)  81 stores from Tijuana, Mexicali and, Ensenada participated in the objectives of the promotion: increase idaho’s potato supply and train buyers and warehouse personnel on proper handling and storage of the product.  

The promotion lasted 4 weeks and Wilcox sent over 28 loads of Idaho potatoes.  

In addition, the activity was complemented with a communication plan in conjunction with Calimax on its social networks, television ads and, radio. Also, a publication at the newspaper Frontera.  

Sales of Idaho potatoes in the three winning stores increased by 62 % and, in total had a reach of 1 313 407 consumers. 

Guatemala Gastronomic Experience

NuChef previously participated with Imalinx in 2016, in the Idaho Potato Commission project, “Blogger Harvest Tour”. Since its beginning in 2004. then the NuChef community has grown significantly. 

Imalinx decided to collaborate with them to create an activity in order to position the Idaho Potatoes in the market, the activity consisted of two given workshops where people could cook using Idaho Potatoes, the first one focused on housewives early in the morning and the second one for executives in the afternoon. 

The menu created was:  

  • Baked potato stuffed with chicken, corn and gratin cheese.  
  • Salad  
  • Potato Donuts  

As a gift, participants received fresh Idaho Potatoes at the end of the workshop. The potatoes used were sponsored by Grupo Dispersa.  

The workshops had 36 participants, who got involved in learning more about ways to cook with Idaho Potatoes and seeing the results of the workshop they shared their experience in their social networks.   

Month for potato lovers

The participants were 15 stores of La Torre in Guatemala, 15 Super Selectos stores and 15 Walmart stores in El Salvador. Training and practices were carried out to encourage the inclusion of 2 new varieties of potatoes, the Red Potato and the Purple Potato of Idaho.

Potato Idaho sales at participating stores increased 50%.

Potato harvest tour in Idaho for Latin American bloggers

As part of the consumer public relations program of the Idaho Potato Commission, Imalinx contacted a group of international bloggers to travel to Idaho and live the experience of knowing the entire process that the Idaho Potatoes go through to reach the consumer table. 

The publications of all participants talked about the benefits, the way of harvest, the added value, recipes and the experience lived in Idaho. 

The group was made up of bloggers focused on food from Guatemala, Costa Rica, Mexico, Panama and Puerto Rico. 

  • “Mujeres al asador” (Women in the gril): 

Formed by Chef Citlali Huerta and Hussein Cárdenas of the TV Azteca program called “Con ganas” (with willingness) in the northern region of Mexico. With more than 3,000 followers on Facebook. Additionally, the Chef also published in her personal account with more than 2,000 followers. 

  • “El buen diente” (enjoy eating): 

With more than 14,790 followers on Instagram, 5,500 followers on Facebook and 2,000 on Twitter. The author, Jorge Chanis made publications using the hashtag #RicasPapasDeIdaho. 

  • “Nuchef”: 

Mara Corado Valls, the owner of NuChef, with more than 3,000 followers on Instagram and Twitter and approximately 1,000 followers on Facebook. 

  • “Foodies PR”: 

An account with more than 5,700 followers on Facebook, 4,297 on Twitter and 3,065 on Instagram. He published the best moments of the experience and some with content focused on the Idaho Potato harvest. 

At the end of the project, the 4 bloggers totaled 73 posts in the 3 social networks. Approximately 55,000 people were reached, and the posts generated traffic to our Idaho Potato Fan Page on Facebook. 

Idaho in Costco Mexico

In October 2012, after the first negotiation reunion between the importer of Costco and Idahoan Foods, the first order was placed and five months after, by March 2013, they had already imported 168 pallets of Idaho products.