Did you know that sriracha is a style of hot sauce, not a brand of sauce? Just like ketchup, sriracha can be manufactured by anyone. However, in the U.S. at least, when someone says sriracha (or rooster sauce for that matter), they’re talking about Huy Fong Food’s spicy elixir with the iconic green cap and rooster logo. (more…)
Of all the exciting things that happen at MarketPlace on a regular basis, one of my favorites is when we kick off new partnerships. One of our most recent partners is IDF (International Dehydrated Foods), a global leader in the design and
production of poultry, meat, and broth ingredients. We recently began work with IDF on developing their brand story, which is amazing and has so much potential to say and do big things in the industry. (more…)
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.
One of the great things about the approach of a new year is the hope and promise it ushers in. Along with that hope and promise comes reflection, and sometimes, as we look back, we gain (or get a reminder of) a bigger-picture perspective. This has never been more true for MarketPlace than at the end of 2012, our 10th year in business. (more…)
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. (more…)
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 want to spend time with. She’s very down to earth, but she’s also the kind of person who sees the science in, under, around, and behind everything. In other words, she’s like me and just about everyone I know, except that she’s a genius in pharmaceutical formulation and applications. She’s the epitome of a Science Person.
As the 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 the B2B and B2C food, beverage, and ingredients world, our individual interests are varied. Some of us are really into craft beers, some of us have decades of experience with flavors, some of us are respected leaders in animal care and nutrition, some of us are very active in the gluten-free community, and so on. Greater than our collective expertise and individual interests, though, is our shared passion for helping our partners shape their brands, tell their stories, and sell their services, solutions, and products to their markets. So when we forge a new partnership, we’re excited by the possibilities and the opportunity to tell a new story. (more…)
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 like everyone else and everyone from the mid- to late-eighties looks goofy to me now. I regret them because they were truly terrible choices, regardless of context. I’m talking spandex bike shorts, suspenders, and fish tie terrible. Walking billboard for idiocy terrible. Assistant Librarian laughing at me terrible. (more…)
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 least 10 years. I’m a writer. My writing has been read by a lot of people. I taught hundreds of sections of composition and rhetoric at the university level. When the realization hit me that thousands upon thousands of people had witnessed me repeatedly make such a basic mistake, I did, indeed, experience a rush of crud to my heart. I was beyond embarrassed—I was klonging. (more…)
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 ingredients world. For instance, they harnessed microalgae for use as a whole food ingredient, and their product Almagine™ literally has the potential to revolutionize the future of nutritional food development. Being relatively new to the industry, they approached us to help build awareness of their company and spread the word about them and their amazing microalgae-based product platform in advance of their appearance at various trade shows. (more…)
