On Tuesday, January 15, Facebook introduced its latest update, Graph Search. As this new functionality is rolled out, users will be able to search – and be found – in new ways. Instead of simply seeking a person, place, or thing, Facebook users will be empowered to qualify searches with people my friends know, places… Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span>
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Shared Meals: Dining in the Era of Social Media
Initiate dinner plans with friends through Facebook, seek out Yelp reviews before choosing a restaurant, arrive at the location and check in on Foursquare, crowdsource menu recommendations through Twitter, photograph and post an image of your meal with Instagram – all before taking your first bite. Welcome to dining in a social media society. With… Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span>
Every Day is a (Food) Holiday
As the taste of Thanksgiving fades with the last leftover turkey sandwich, we begin to anticipate the arrival of upcoming holidays and the dishes that will mark those occasions. While Christmas or Hanukkah may come to mind, there are a number of lesser-known holidays right around the corner. Take November 30th, for instance; it’s National… Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span>
One Million Apps and Counting
The twitterverse and tech blogs are abuzz: as of today, one million apps have been launched via Apple’s App Store. While gaming apps tend to have the highest number of downloads (shout out to Angry Birds), there are a number of food, photo, news, and music apps worth checking out. To commemorate this million-app milestone,… Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span>
B2B Marketing, Paula Deen, and Differentiation
One of the best lunches I had in recent months was with Carmen Popescu, Senior Project Coordinator of Pharmaceutical Applications at Roquette America. Our conversation ranged from linguistics to Ceaușescu to tabbouleh to the state of higher education in America to hair care products. Carmen is energetic, witty, and warm, the kind of person you… Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span>
Chia is the New Flax
In 2008, flax was all the rage among health-conscious consumers. Declarations of its near-magical powers significantly boosted consumer recognition of this cancer-preventing, menopause-easing superfood. Cooking shows made classic baked goods healthier with the incorporation of flaxseed. Magazines urged consumers to sprinkle it on their cereal and yogurt for an added health boost. Boasting high fiber… Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span>
An Agency with a Booth
At a recent industry trade show, several attendees asked me, throughout the course of an afternoon, what a food marketing agency does and why an agency would have a booth at a food show. Though my colleagues will tell you I’ve never offered a simple answer in my life, the answers this time really were… Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span>
Telling a Sweet Story: MarketPlace + Nutrinova
As a food marketing agency, we offer expertise and experience in all stages of a product’s lifecycle, from raw material to consumer packaged good. While our collective knowledge spans B2B and B2C food, beverage, and ingredients industries, our individual interests are varied. Some of us are really into craft beers, some of us have decades… Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span>
How to Bring Your Work Home (and Capture it on Video)
Probably the best thing about working at MarketPlace is that most of my passions converge in my office. I get to design websites, study analytics, stay current on social media and video marketing technology, to name a few. When I leave the office, I take those passions with me and head home, where I get… Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span>
Be Held: The Art of Packaging
I didn’t have the type of mother who said things like, “Well, you’re a sight to behold,” but if I did, she would have said that to me just about every day during my middle school years. I regret many of the outfits I wore in the mid- to late-eighties, but not because I dressed… Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span>
Instagram: Capturing Perception
The moment is fleeting. You’d love for time to stop, but it doesn’t. You want the experience to linger, but you can’t hold it. You can, however, click it. And it takes only an instant. How many of your friends and acquaintances use a still camera to record their lives? Pretty much everyone, no doubt.… Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span>
Talk Like There’s No Innovation: B2B Differentiation
I klong weekly. You probably do, too. “Klong” means “a sudden rush of crud to the heart” caused by the realization that you’d said, done, or believed something wrong for a long time. For example, I realized one day years back that I’d been saying and writing the phrase “for all intensive purposes” for at… Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span>
Food Marketing Technology and Your Customer’s Customer
From day one, MarketPlace has championed an undisputed fact of food marketing: a successful product sells into the unique desires and ever-changing tastes of the end-consumer. If droves of consumers start tweeting about their love for earthworm flavor or gym-sock aroma, food and beverage R&D teams will be working hard to capture the essence of… Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span>
Marketing the Impossible
We love challenges, whether they’re related to marketing strategy, advertising, brand building, or eating X number of Y in Z minutes. So we especially love it when we partner with a client who enjoys challenges as much as we do. Solazyme Roquette Nutritionals, a new client, is doing amazing things in the food, beverage, and… Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span>
Good Design, Like Good People, Inspires Generosity
So, yeah, baby Dwayne is pretty darn cute. We love seeing him this way: happy, secure, and with a great opportunity to beat the systemic forces of homelessness among women and children in St. Louis. We love that Gateway180 entrusts us with the weighty work of helping to ensure that people know about, and respond… Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span>