A success story of a great opportunity for six Mexican buyers (Comercializadora Mexport, Casa Ley, Grupo Cimarron, Hanseatik, Good Express and Dualmex) where, through the support of WUSATA, they traveled to Las Vegas, Nevada to attend the SIAL America’s first show edition and the Pizza Expo show with the objective of increasing their portfolio.
Our buyers had one-on-one meetings with more than 28 suppliers from the Western United States looking to enter the Mexican market. These meetings took place inside and outside the SIAL America show and they as well had the opportunity to visit 3 American supermarkets to learn more about products and current trends in the United States.
On February 18, 2022, Pizza DePrizza unveiled its new pizza with pork rinds; a collaboration between Real California Milk and Carnes La Ramos, one of the most important butcheries in the North of the Republic founded in 1968, which with over time and the quality of their products became increasingly popular with their customers and in the whole region.
Faced with this and wanting to surprise their loyal clientele, La Ramos, set out to launch a new product that, without imagining it, would become one of the most popular and most preferred flavors in the north of the country: Pizza with Chicharrón de La Ramos. This delicious creation can be tasted in simple bites, as a stew or in a succulent sauce, turning it, thanks to its versatility, into an iconic and one of the favorite’s products of the region that later became so in most of corners throughout the country.
During the first quarter of launch, from February 15 to May 12, more than 21,575 pizzas were sold. This implied an increase on the California cheese sales within the pizzeria’s consumption with more than 1,425 tons and with more than 4,275 tons of California cheese during the quarter. The launching campaign included radio spots, printed flyers, social media advertising, trucks, billboards, influencers and more.
As of the launch date and during this first quarter, this new variety begins to stabilize as a product that hopefully will perdure in the Pizza DePrizza catalog.
Within the northern market of the country, it has been well accepted and in other areas it is beginning to be known.
On behalf of the Western United States Agicultural Trade Association (WUSATA), a trade mission was carried out in Mexico City and Monterrey with 16 US exporters with the objective of creating commercial ties between importers from Mexico and Central America and Western United States exporters. 3 importers from Central America were present at the business rounds in Mexico City; importers visited us from Colombia, Costa Rica and El Salvador. And in Monterrey we were accompanied by 4 regional importers from Tijuana, Mexicali and Chihuahua.
One on one meetings were held at the hotel facilities, resulting in a total of 275 meetings with an average of 17 meetings per exporter. There were on-site sales. In the Monterrey portion, the US consulate general was present at the meetings and had the opportunity to meet with the exporters and trade members.
This year DiStefano burrata cheese arrived to the best restaurants in Mexico! For two months, Real California Milk, in company of different media and influencers, traveled around “Ruta de la Burrata” visiting three different restaurants, all of them Italian, but with different concepts. Our first stop at Fornería del Becco, welcomed our guests with an exquisite burrata e pomodoro appetizer, followed by a burrata pizza with anchovy and spinach and calamarata pasta with asparagus and burrata, all exquisitely prepared by Chef Tobías Petzold.
The second destination was Ornella, a new restaurant in San Ángel (Mexico City) runned by Chef Axel Vázquez and which recentely opened its doors in October of this year. The Chef’s creations delighted commensals with a caprese and burrata salad with pomodoro pastry.
Finally, our trip concluded in Mattea, another restaurant under the command of Chef Vázquez, being an excellent option for fresh homemade pasta lovers. Here, the media enjoyed a pizza margherita with burrata, spaghetti with truffle, burrata with puff pastry and cherry tomatoes.
Each experience was instantly shared through our guests’ Instagram stories, Facebook posts and web articles, which were shared through the media: Larousse Cocina, Food and Wine, Food and Travel, Maria Orsini, Cocina Vital and Paperbeat. The campaign was a success and managed to impact more than 1,943,708 consumers.
Along with the media strategy during the “Ruta de la Burrata”, there was communication on the official social networks of Real California Milk, promoting the seasonal dishes with the DiStefano burrata and inviting consumers to visit the restaurants. The investment made in Facebook and Instagram successfully resulted in more than 3,795,015 impressions and around 1,544,026 people reached.
Our guests favorably enjoyed each stop of out “Ruta de la Burrata” and we successfully achieved satisfactory communication in each of the media, achieving top-level diffusion for the participant restaurants, as well as the presence of the Real California Milk seal.
A trade mission was coordinated between 23 exporters and 33 importers in Mexico. 123 business meetings were accomplished between suppliers and buyers with the objective of creating commercial relations. This mission was coordinated on behalf of WUSATA.
The import of samples from the 23 participating American companies was coordinated to later provide them to the participating buyers, 123 meetings were coordinated as well as support with translation and market information.
Each company had an average of 5 meetings with importers.
On April 12 was the launch nationwide in Mexico of Bon bons ice cream, mini bites of vanilla ice cream covered with chocolate.
The launch was accompanied by the publication of a video on Costco’s social networks which had a reach of more than a million people, on the Real California Milk Facebook the boosted official video resulted in 780, 685 consumers reached and 1,458,149 total impressions.
In addition, a special influencers campaign was published with more than 70 proposals from Mexican influencers tasting the new product #BonBons. Total results: 54, 700 impressions.
After the launch of the vanilla ice cream dipped in dark chocolate BonBons in Mexico in April, Real California Milk and Costco decided to make a 25% discount nationwide by late summer.
The discount boosted sales and was a success, a return on investment of 219% was obtained with a total sale of 2,807. The promotion was valid from July 26 to August 2, 2021.
During the month of December, Imalinx coordinated a program with 5 renowned chefs from mexico who had the opportunity to cook with dried fruits, dairy and fresh products.
With the aim of promoting the consumption of products such as yellow onions, raisins, California cheese and butter during the holiday season, Imalinx with the support of Beto Lanz coordinatedthis program with 5 renowned chefs across Mexico.
Participating Chefs: Pablo Salas, Bianca Castro, Andrea Martínez, Juan Emilio Villaseñor and Christian González, who developed easy-to-replicate recipes using the previously mentioned ingredients as the star ingredient.
Each of the recipes were published on the Chef’s own digital channels and replicated on the social networks of the brand in order to amplify the reach.
Pablo Salas, from the Amaranta Restaurant, developed a recipe of NY Sliders with yellow onion.
Bianca Castro. Biscottis Pastry baked a total of 3 recipes with California raisin butter, as well as a yellow onion crumble.
Andrea Martinez, from Casa Liebre prepared 2 recipes with California cheese and butter and a pork rind in Raisin Adobo. Also a Pasta made by yellow onion
Juan Emilio Villaseñor, from La Cocinoteca presents us with a recipe for mole with raisins, a butter with garlic and yellow onion stuffed with Cod.
Christian González from Boulangerie Amasijo, innovated by creating a raisin chamoy and a crisp shortbread based on California butter.
Luis Serdio from Corazón de Pollo, with a unique concept of gourmet rotisserie offered a limited edition Buffalo Chicken Sandwich and Mac&Cheese box with California cheeses.
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.
On behalf of the Western United States Agricultural Trade Association (WUSATA) and coordinated by Beto Lanz 15 companies participated in the first recipe program in Mexico with the main objective of promoting value-added food and beverage products in the Mexican gastronomic industry.
The chefs who participated were Chef Pablo Salas, from Amaranta Restaurant; Josefina Santa Cruz, from Sesame; Chuy Elizondo, from Benell; Oscar Herrera, from Flor de Nogal; and Bianca Castro, from Biscottis Bakery. The companies that participated in this first recipe program were Agropur, Northwest Hazelnuts, Farmer’s Rice, Fresh Nature Foods, Barber’s food, Limoneira, Smile Foods, Royal Ridge, Shining Ocean, Pure palms, Jacey Cakes, Colorado Potatoes, Traina Foods, Bow & Arrow and Sadaf Foods.
Each company selected one chef to received the ingredients . Among those products were surimi, dried apricots, hazelnuts, fresh green garbanzo beans, potatoes, and gouda cheese. Each product with a different flavor and origin.
The recipes developed were published on the Chefs’ social networks and reposted on the official WUSATA social media pages, resulting in + 2, 218, 290 people reached and 1, 028, 900 views.
As part of the “Taste of the West” campaign, and with the challenge to communicate where to buy the products to consumers Wusata had communication through Walmart and HEB channels.
The campaign was achieved through digital advertising in both chains, a Landing page was created with all the products from the promotion, also banners on website and offsite communication (materials through social media). There was a total of 1103% growth in visits compared to the season without promotion and more than 9,600 interactions with consumers on the banners.
At the end of this project, a digital recipe book was developed now available in: https://issuu.com/home/published/taste_of_the_west_original
WUSATA carried out a virtual trade mission between exporters from the Western Union States and importers from 5 Latin American countries. The objective was to generate new business relationships and mission was divided into 4 categories on 4 different dates:
18 companies from the Western Union States participated in the mission and 26 importers from different countries such as Costa Rica, Colombia, Chile, Panama and Dominican Republic were present. Each exporter had an average of 5 meetings, with a total of 106 meetings across the mission.
This activity was previously planned for a face-to-face trip to Costa Rica and Colombia but due to the restrictions of the pandemic we resorted to technology and offered the possibility of having private and group sessions. This new mode of business mission resulted efficiency and the possibility to target a greater number of contacts with previous and virtual agendas.