As you’re perusing the cookie tray at the office party this year, keep your eyes peeled for offerings that have the food industry screaming, “Fa-la-la!”
Gluten-free is now one of fastest-growing segments of the specialty-food market and the fastest-growing products in the global food-allergy and food-intolerance market. Its foods and beverage sales reached $2.6 billion last year, adding to the annual growth rate of 30 percent from 2006 to 2010. With sales predicted to exceed $5 billion by 2015, foods once only on the radar of those with Celiac Disease are now a major player. So what factors induced this brownie bonanza?
Growing Diagnosis of Need
The American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy reports that Celiac Disease affects approximately 1 in 133 people — about 2 million people in the United States. European diagnoses far outnumber those in the U.S., which only saw a recent surge. As awareness and diagnoses grow, industry sees a population with growth potential.
Celebrity Factor
One of the fastest ways to jump-start a bandwagon is to make it first-class. Tennis-star Novak Djokovic claims that part of his successful year, which included a number-one ranking and three Grand Slam titles, stemmed from his new gluten-free diet. Elizabeth Hasselbeck, who was actually diagnosed with Celiac Disease, chats about her gluten-free adventures on ABC’s “The View,” and Gwyneth Paltrow blogs about her conversion because the actress views it as healthier.
It Does Everything but Windows
A survey of those intentionally seeking gluten-free products revealed many channels of motivation, some supported by science, others still out for debate (placing it firmly in the news). Of those shoppers, 46 percent believed gluten-free products were healthier, 36 percent viewed it as a weight-loss aid, 24 percent associated gluten-free with quality, and 13 percent claimed benefits regarding hyperactivity/autism.
Why Not?
Amazingly, according to a study by Packaged Facts this year, only 15 percent of consumers intentionally bought a gluten-free product. More than half didn’t realize they were gluten-free. How’s that for a Pepsi challenge? You expand to your specialty market without the risk of alienating a larger crowd. In addition, foods that are naturally gluten-free, such as milk, honey and water, now often add the “gluten-free” mantra to packaging with no additional precautions or expense beyond labeling.
The FDA looks to regulate gluten-free labeling in the coming months as a response to this roaring trend. But for now, grab a gluten-free reindeer by the horns and chomp away. Everyone’s doing it.
There is collective mourning today not only among the technology industry and product end-users, but also among those who work in marketing and branding. Steve Jobs was indeed a hero in our world as well.
Yes, he was a technical wizard. Certainly, he built a company and a global cult following. However, Steve Jobs also played marketing messiah, bringing a brand back from the brink.
Jobs laid the groundwork and set the tone for one of the best brand reinventions a textbook … er, tablet … will ever cite.
Unabashedly styled, secretive and rebellious, under his leadership technology became bold enough to mingle fashion and trends with innovation and code. Color, music, youth and energy broke from the pack, with others galloping to follow many lengths behind.
Anyone who ever feels their brand is at the corner of dead-end and beat-to-the-ground can look back to Steve Jobs and know solutions always exist within the confidence of leadership.
In 1999, Jobs summed up steering the brand through tough times:
“The cure for Apple is to innovate its way out of its current predicament.”
From a man who admired simplicity, it said everything about his brand blueprint.
With our greatest admiration … Option-Shift-Command-Esc.
Now at 250 million casual gamers a month, there’s no denying online games represent a substantial medium. So why aren’t marketers responding? read more »
Hats off to the El Paso Convention and Visitors Bureau! Not only were they awarded three first-place prizes in this year’s statewide tourism competition, they scored hosting honors for the 2013 Texas Association of Convention and Visitors Bureaus conference.
Sanders\Wingo, who developed the winning “Real Adventure is Still Alive” creative ad campaign, is proud to call El Paso home and we look forward to more stellar campaigns and more visitors to The Sun City!
The curiosity of kids meets the magic of U-verse.
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Check out our latest AT&T spot featuring the new HTC Status, the only phone with a Facebook share button.
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Check out The Sunny Side, El Paso Electric’s new microsite to learn more about EPE and their commitment to solar energy.
A big congratulations goes out to our S\W El Paso teammates for their award-winning El Paso Convention and Visitor’s Bureau tourism video. On top of the two ADDY awards garnered (a local gold and regional silver), they’ve recently been given the honor of a bronze Telly award in the 32nd Annual Telly Awards.
We’re patting our Sanders\Wingo El Paso teammates on the back for bringing home a Silver ADDY® at the 2011 ADDY Awards. Catch the award-winning spot for the El Paso Convention and Visitor’s Bureau below.
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Download The Kiss opens on Blake Griffin in a gym, slamming home a reverse dunk to his friends’ dissatisfaction. For his next dunk, Blake grabs a basketball and his Motorola ATRIX 4G smartphone, causing his friends to quiet in anticipation. Blake tosses the ball off the backboard and dunks it in one single motion. Thanks to the speed of AT&T’s mobile broadband network, when he lands we notice a video has just finished downloading on his phone, much to the surprise of his friends. The spot ends with Blake’s friends completely wowed, as the announcer reminds us that in the network, perfect endings download faster. Check it out!
Bringing back the record store.
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Our CEO Bob Wingo was featured in the El Paso Times recently, where he discusses what brought him to the city of El Paso and why he’s proud to call it home.
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Congratulations goes out to our very own Tynesha Williams for her award-winning spot House Sitting. It took third place in the Doritos Crash the Superbowl contest last night, making all of us even bigger fans of her talent and creative eye. To add an extra layer of awesome to the equation? She created the spot while on maternity leave. (She eats time-management skills for breakfast!)
See the winning spot and an interview about her stellar win at My Fox Detroit. and Global Grind.
Doritos ‘House Sitting’ Ad Created by Detroit’s Tynesha Williams: MyFoxDETROIT.com
The story and work of Vivian Maier have been blowing up the Internet this week, giving this newfound old photographer a brand-new, fresh fanbase — and just in time for her posthumous first exhibit at the Chicago Cultural Center.
Her work is undeniably stunning. And her history and how the more than 100,000 negatives were lost to the world before now is captivating unto itself.
A slideshow of prints and how her work was discovered was recently featured in the New York Times blog, and the website vivianmaier.blogspot.com has the full workup as well.
