Unilever Challenges Hispanic Chefs
Ten Unilever brands are challenging Hispanic consumers to a cook-off in Unilever’s biggest-ever Hispanic campaign.
The competition, Desafío del Sabor (“The Flavor Challenge”), pools the resources of Ragu, Knorr, Hellmann’s, Lipton and other brands for the competition that starts in-store and winds up with a final event televised on two Univision networks.
Consumers enter by submitting their recipes at in-store events across the U.S. though July 15. (Recipes must include at least one of the participating brands.) Unilever will choose 50 competitors in each of five markets, Los Angeles, New York, Miami, Chicago and Houston. From those, Unilever will choose six contestants to compete in regional cook-offs to be held during Hispanic festivals in those markets over the summer.
One winner in each region becomes a finalist in the national cook-off in Miami in November or December. The grand-prize winner gets $10,000 and a trip for four to the Premio Lo Nuestro a La Música Latina award show in March 2007, and will appear on national TV; the winning recipe will be featured in Unilever’s upcoming recipe book. Two first-prize winners get $2,000 each and will appear on Univision; two second-place winners get $1,000 each and may appear on Univision.
Unilever taps the Art Institutes’ Culinary Arts Program to hire bilingual culinary students who will give demonstrations and tastings at in-store events. In exchange, Unilever will award $50,000 to support scholarships to Hispanic culinary students at the Art Institutes.
TV, radio, print and online ads, as well as in-store events, couponing and P-O-P and a recipe booklet VivaMejor, distributed in-store, support.
MASS Hispanic Marketing, Miami, and Big Voice Communications, Bethel, CT, handle for Unilever, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.
The CPG giant created an internal multicultural business unit last year and is investing heavily in research on Hispanic shopping, cooking, eating and lifestyle habits.
“Desafío del Sabor … brings together everything that we have been doing for the past year. With this campaign we are aligning our consumer insights, our brands and our market outreach to effectively reach Hispanic consumers,” said Unilever U.S. Director of Multicultural Marketing Ricardo Martinez in a statement.
The other brands behind the contest are Lawry’s, WishBone, Country Crock and Skippy; participating Lipton brands include Lipton Tea, Lipton Sides and Lipton Noodle Soup.
