During the 2012 season of Zespri kiwifruit, the largest kiwifruit distributor in the world announced its first annual campaign focused on Children’s Health with Kiwifruit in conjunction with the supermarket chain Soriana with the objective of promoting good nutritional habits in children.
Zespri and Soriana selected four charitable foundations, which represented the most important regions of Mexico, to promote the children’s health through proper nutrition and physical activity.
PARTICIPANT FOUNDATIONS
The dynamic of the campaign consisted on people playing within a microsite www.kiwisaludinfantil.com and answering trivia questions regarding health and nutrition, they won points for the charitable foundation and the region of their choice.
At the end of the campaign, the foundation with the most quantity of points achieved, won the amount of $60,000 Mexican pesos from Zespri; the second place $20,000 Mexican pesos and the two remaining foundations $10,000 Mexican pesos each. Zespri delivered an equivalent of $100,000 Mexican pesos between the four institutions.
The result of the campaign was positive as, during the 5 weeks of duration of the activity, sales of Zespri kiwifruit at Soriana increased by 28%.
“I am very happy that Zespri launches the Zespri’s Children Health Contest in Mexico as it is a vital topic for our country, in addition to joining the work of foundations with this campaign, as it will grant us with a very important awareness result… just to say that nobody here loses and we all somehow win.”, says Inés Masallach, spokeswoman of Zespri’s Children Health and Marketing Director of Imalinx Latin America.
Due to this campaign, Zespri was certified by the National Chamber of Women, as one of the 100 responsibly healthy companies in Mexico in 2013.
The cooking workshop was coordinated by the Idaho Potato Commission on October and carried out in the British American School.
Parents, professors and media experienced the workshop with the chef Natalia Delgado, ambassador of the Idaho Potato Commission. Natalia promoted the “Good Eating” and highlighted the nutritional benefits of including Idaho potatoes in their daily diet.
Participants discovered the versatility of the products by cooking unique recipes with dehydrated as more than just mashed potato.
Below you will find some pictures of the Cooking Workshop.
As part of the consumer program of the Idaho Potato Commission, Imalinx created a strategy where Idaho products participated in the menu “The month of United States” of the restaurant chain Sanborn’s.
During July 2012, the USA menu was featured in all 200 Sanborns restaurants nationwide. The IPC participated with the inclusion of 2 different dishes featuring Idaho mashed potato.
The objective of the strategy was to generate brand awareness of Idaho mashed potatoes, and its quality. In addition, to position the brand and integrate the product in the daily diet of the smallest members of the family.
Different POS materials were used to support the program. Tent cards, posters, banners and newspaper ads were part of the campaign, all of which included the Grown in Idaho logo. Imalinx representative on behalf of the IPC also negotiated to have Spuddy Buddy visit 10 restaurants in Mexico City to create brand awareness among consumers.
The interaction between children and Spuddy Buddy was the most successful as 70% of children ordered a dish with potatoes, asked for pictures with Spuddy motley.
According to the sales information Sanborn´s provided us, in all 16,160 dishes featuring Idaho mashed Potato were sold over a 1-month period.
On May 23rd, 2012, the Idaho Potato Commission was contacted through Imalinx with a special request for taking Idaho Potatoes to the presentation of chef Willow Benet (chef of the restaurant Pikayo in Puerto Rico), within the event Madrid Fusión, an international competition of gastronomy carried out for the first time in Mexico.
The key messages of versatility and quality of the product were reinforced during the presentation of the event. A pre-baked frozen potato was used, and a new presentation was exhibited to the market.
The participant chefs and distributors showed high interest on learning more about the different presentations of Idaho potatoes.
Pomegranate arils are used in Mexican dishes during the months of August and September. However, the objective of this program consisted in extending the season during more months of the year, reaching until December or January. The recipes that were developed included ideas for snacks, health menus and beverages.
Media contacts received positively the material and additional to achieving an equivalent cost of 20 to 1 mentions and insertions, the pomegranates were part of the season and participated in one of the magazines with the largest circulation in December, Kena Christmas edition.
The strategy was developed at the restaurants Teodora, Lucca, Bistro Q and Chino Latino, in which eight dishes were created including beverages, entrees, main courses and desserts. Pomegranates from the west of United States and yellow onions were included as star ingredients.
The objective was to establish a relationship between the gastronomic uses and diffusion to consumers. Visual aids, tent cards and press announcements helped the promotion creating excellent feedback from consumers and restaurant managers.
As representatives of the Blueberry Council, Imalinx organized a sampling activity at the restaurant Jaso, located in Mexico City at Polanco neighborhood.
The chefs, Jared Reardon and Sonia Arias, offered a tasting of six dishes which surprised even the most experienced palate, where blueberries were the source of inspiration of which chefs had to use in this occasion to create never seen before dishes on their menu.
The sampling of the menu had the objective of making the consumption of blueberries more accessible as it is a berry that is little known in our country.
On May 2010, the first blueberry culinary encounter at the Higher Education Centre of San Angel (CESSA) was celebrated, where eight outstanding graduates of this year developed original recipes with blueberries as the main ingredient.
The encounter aimed to reveal the qualities and benefits of blueberries,
as well as the multiple uses that these have and the necessary measures for
their proper handling.
Participants were able to use fresh, frozen and dehydrated blueberries.
The result was a presentation of original recipes of which the following stand out:
Imalinx achieved to position blueberries as a versatile and added value product with a “more than just for muffins” approach.
On joint efforts with the renowned chef, Paulina Abascal, an integral campaign was developed with participation on television programs, radio and magazine articles.
In alliance with the magazine “Pasión por la Cocina” a contest was arranged in which consumers participated to win a visit to the kitchen facilities of the chef and to obtain the book “Larousse Desserts” autographed by the chef and author, Paulina.
Having chef Paulina Abascal as spokeswoman of the brand allowed blueberries to position themselves as an added value item with a “more than just for muffins” approach.
The demonstration which was focused on products from western United States was undertaken in the Higher Education Centre of San Angel (CESSA) in Mexico City. Taught by chef Rod Jessick from the Coeur Dálene Resort in Idaho, who developed a menu with products of western United States for future chefs and media.
The section Buena Mesa of the newspaper Reforma published an article regarding the innovation of the United States’ cuisine.
In the culinary forum for universities, the participating entities were the University of Claustro de Sor Juana, the University of Anahuac del Sur and the University of the Valle de Mexico.
On the other hand, during the culinary forum of blueberries the future chefs had to integrate them into Mexican dishes and present their dishes before the evaluation of five critics in gastronomy.