Food marketing is close to my heart. As a Food Marketing Consultant I see new trends / fads / ideas every week. It’s my job to look at these trends they way analysts look at the market. I take this stuff seriously.

Mostly I’m pretty unimpressed. Often there’s a weak attempt to re-package and re-message something we’ve seen before or something the World could certainly manage without.

But some trends linger and even become embedded. Some, like the Mediterranean Diet, even become a way of life. And with good reason. This is a diet which has been shown to convey long-term health benefits. That’s right. By simply substituting some of your current food ingredients for those eaten as part of the traditional Mediterranean Diet, you too can improve your health and, quite likely, extend your life.

In my previous post on the Mediterranean Diet I mentioned the excellent free ebook by Dr Simon Poole. You can download the entire ebook “The Taste of The Mediterranean” – a simple guide to benefiting from the so-called “Med Diet” approach by clicking here.

But Dr. Simon Poole wasn’t the only fascinating person I met while speaking at the FDIN Med Diet Seminar. Any one interested in Food Marketing will be interested to know Sara Baer-Sinnott, President of Oldways. You see while the populations around the Mediterranean have been following their diet for millennia, this way of eating has only been recognised as a “diet” since 1992.

Sara was at that first conference where the term was coined. She has seen the entire movement –  way of eating and way of life – develop. Sara has been an instrumental figure at Oldways since its early days, joining the staff in 1992 to work on one of the first overseas Symposiums (Food, Culture and Discovery in Spain) and the first Mediterranean Diet Conference.

That’s all interesting history, but what Oldways is really famous for, is for creating and popularising the “Mediterranean Diet Pyramid” – a contemporary approach to delicious, healthy eating.

The Oldways Mediterranean Diet Pyramid

On his website, Dr. Simon Poole explains the power of the Oldways Mediterranean Diet Pyramid:

“To achieve a beautifully balanced and complete diet which combines the best types of proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals and micronutrients, use the pyramid. Reproduced by kind permission from Olways. A laminated copy on your fridge is a great idea!

This simple illustration shows how to combine foods in quantities which have been shown to most closely represent the Mediterranean diet – the healthiest food combination in the World.

Creating a healthy week is easy using these ideas.”

You can find out more about Oldways at their website here.

The world’s most sophisticated flash mob? (24 years on… still going strong! But have you been and is it in your city yet?)

What’s it all about?

At the last minute, the location is given to thousands of friends and acquaintances who have been patiently waiting to learn the “Dîner en Blanc’s” secret place. Thousand of people, dressed all in white, and conducting themselves with the greatest decorum, elegance, and etiquette, all meet for a mass “chic picnic” in a public space.

Over the course of an evening, the diners enhance the function and value of their city’s public space by participating in the unexpected.
Beyond the spectacle and refined elegance of the dinner itself, guests are brought together from diverse backgrounds by a love of beauty and good taste.
Le Dîner en Blanc recalls the elegance and glamour of court society, and diners engage one another knowing they are taking part in a truly magical event.
There are no disruptions: no car traffic, no pedestrian traffic, except for the occasional amazed and astonished looks from passersby at the scene unfolding before them. And we, as they, wonder whether it’s all not a dream…

Born 24 years ago in Paris with just a handful of friends by Francois Pasquier, the Paris Dîner en Blanc now assembles nearly 15,000 people each year.

Find out more here.

Get involved and get the latest “D-E-B” news here.

I’m delighted to have been asked to return to speak again for ASAIM SE Asia and The US Grains Council at the 8th SE Asia Soy Food Seminar.

I was with them last year at the 2012 event at The Hyatt in Singapore. This year I’m really excited for 2 reasons – I’ve got a great new story to share on Soy Branding and the venue is the Westin Nusa Dua Resort in Bali, Indonesia!

I’ll be talking about selecting the right “Innovation Space” for your product launch and the rules of the game that must be respected. I’m also looking forward to catching up with my Soy Industry friends. Who knows, we may even find the pool?

I’ll be arriving a day early on 20th May and will be running a FourFactors Marketing Masterclass on Tuesday 21 May. Do let me know if you’d like to join!

Sam Waterfall speaking at World Juice 12, Barcelona, Spain

On Tuesday 17 October I was speaking in the NPD Stream at the FoodNews World Juice 2012 Event. Following an excellent opening keynote presentation by Zico Founder Mark Rampolla and a series of discussion style interviews, the 400+ attendees made their way to a number of focused streams for the afternoon learning.

I was speaking in the New Product Development (NPD) stream alongside Datamonitor on Global Juice Beverage Trends and talks on Sustainability. My topic was “How to Push Brand Value”.

The morning’s discussions highlighted the industry’s concerns over commoditisation, the threat of the ‘high in natural sugar’ story and the difficulty faced by those trying to add meaningful consumer value to the category. [..]

Sam Waterfall on successful emerging market branding.

On Monday 16 July I delivered a FourFactors Marketing Masterclass in Jakarta, Indonesia.

The FourFactors were developed and refined by Peter Wennström and we use them at the Healthy Marketing Team to help our clients to test concepts and to create concepts within the Food, Beverage, Ingredients and Personal Care categories.

This particular Masterclass was delivered to a private audience of Senior Marketers from one company. It’s a fantastic way of ensuring that everyone from the business shares the same view of the marketplace, the consumer and the specific category they are looking to operate within. [..]