The icons of McDonald’s: continuing the ‘No Logo’ strategy
20-2-2015
One of our readers e-mailed us a picture of an advertisement with a simple icon, seen in a bus shelter. He suspected that the icon was an advertisement of Mcdonald’s? And he was right. McDonald’s in the Netherlands lets these icons speak for themselves without adding any text.
The ‘No Logo’ strategy
In 2014 McDonald’s USA started the champagne ‘No Logo’. This campaign shows that the products of McDonald’s became brands. Above you can see the first original TV-commercial that was made for this campaign. It was directed by agency TBWA Paris. Now McDonald’s in the Netherlands goes an extra mile by changing its products into just Picto’s. This way they show the Dutch audience that even if their products are advertised as Picto’s, they still are recognizable.
Picto Puzzles based on the Beacon-technology
Besides the pictures you can find on billboards, advertisements in bus shelters and on posters, you can find them as well at more famous places, like the Ziggo Dome in Amsterdam and the subway station ‘Beurs’ in Rotterdam. By scanning these Picto Puzzles with the McDonald’s app, you receive a notification to play Picto Puzzle. Mcdonald’s is the first advertiser in the Netherlands who inserts the Beacon-technology.
Virgin Rumors
13-2-2015
Back in August, the yet-to-open Virgin Hotel in Chicago started the #VirginRumors social media campaign. The hotel began encouraging people to spread rumors about the hotel on social media, Virgin Rumors. The person who had the best #VirginRumor would then win a two-night stay at the hotel during the opening party along with airfare and transportation.
Virgin Rumors
The owner of the hotel, Sir Richard Branson, had actually act out one of the Virgin rumors. Richard Branson was tucking the big winner and her fiancée in and was reading them a bed time story.
Lucy
If Richard Branson isn’t able to provide personal advice or read you a story, Lucy is a great stand-in. Lucy is an app that is your personal assistant during your stay. Lucy gives you advice to find the best local restaurants and gives access to the Virgin Hotels chatroom where you can get recommendations from other guests, meet up, or make new contacts. Besides that Lucy is the remote control you need to watch TV or order movies on demand. You can browse the menu and order with a few ticks. Order while you’re out and come back to find a meal waiting for you.
The Bustronome experience: delicious views of Paris
12-2-2015
Discover Paris on a gourmet escapade during lunch or dinner in a bus, the Bustronome experience. Just like the elegant dinners on the Parisian sightseeing boats, the Bustronome invites everybody to discover Paris aboard a double-decker bus converted into a fancy restaurant.
The Bustronome experience
The Bustronome, is a high-end double decker bus which is offering striking views across the French capital thanks to its panoramic glass roof. At the panoramic upper deck, passengers can enjoy a great lunch or dinner while enjoying Paris. A guided tour in a chic, cosy atmosphere.
Delicious meals while enjoying the view
Two of the menus they serve are ‘all inclusive’ with a selection of wine served by the glass to accompany each dish: champagne (dinner only) / white wine / red wine / mineral or sparkling water / tea or coffee. The tour takes 2h15 for lunch and 2h30 for dinner. At the moment we are writing this article, you can enjoy a Valentine’s day menu up to 14 February. Prices range from 65/85€ (for lunch) and 95/125€ (for dinner).
Bustronome offers an inventive cuisine. Specially invited grand chefs regularly offer new culinary experiences. Some examples of what they serve: Chestnuts’ “bonbonnière” / Poultry stuffed with ‘foie gras’ and season vegetables with hazelnuts sauce / Pineapple mille-feuilles / Scallops carpaccio with pistachio and grapefruit / Shoulder of lamb ‘Grand Veneur’ / Brie de Meaux cheese and caramelized apples.
Inspiration
Why don’t we do the same in Amsterdam? Only instead of preparing the food, we could also stop at a couple of those great restaurants we have in Amsterdam and pick up a dish! Imagine, starters, main courses or desserts from Librije’s Zusje (**); Ciel Bleu (**); &Samhoud Places (**), Bord d’Eau (**) Ron Gastrobar (*) and Rijks restaurant. Wouldn’t that be great? #stealmyidea ^Marjolein
Foodtruck special | Heet Brood
11-2-2015
The Summer of 2014 was one of thriving food festivals. With several events focused on mobile kitchens and a lot of food trucks on smaller festivals throughout the country, the open air food offer grew tremendously. This was partly due to the efforts of The Food Line-Up, ‘Vleesch Noch Visch’ and ‘Rollende Keukens’.
Dutch food truck in Amsterdam
Recently an article on Dutch news website Nu.nl announced that the municipality of Amsterdam starts with giving out permits for food trucks on the streets of the Dutch capital. A great trigger to start a food truck special at Horecatrends.com and highlight some of the food trucks mentioned in the (Dutch) book ‘Reizende Sterren’ (Travelling Stars).
Heet Brood
The pictures on this page belong to ‘Heet Brood’, a food truck owned by Josine Beugels. It’s more than a food truck, it’s better described as theater-art-caravan where you can find some cheesy cooking skills with bread.
‘Reizende Sterren’
The book ‘Reizende Sterren’ is only available in Dutch. If you want to show your (favorite) food truck at the website please write to tip@spronsen.com. If you’re interested in the Dutch food truck scene we can definitely recommend the annual ‘Rollende Keukens’ event in Amsterdam in May with over a hundred trucks on one location.
Food films are popular
30-1-2015
Food films are popular. We have the Food Film Festival in Amsterdam since 2011 and at the Berlinale they will also exhibit various food films during the Culinary Cinema program. Including the documentary ‘Cooking Up a Tribute’.
Last Tuesday we wrote about the popularity of food films in an article about the trailer of the film ‘Fucking Perfect’ of Sergio Herman. We used various examples from the past, but recently the program of the Culinary Cinema at the Berlin Film Festival (known as the Berlinale) was published. Which includes the documentary about the owners of El Celler de Can Roca, entitled ‘Cooking Up a Tribute’ which will premiere on 10 February.
Trailer of ‘Cooking Up a Tribute’
The documentary was directed by Luis Gonzalez and Andrea Gomez and is about Summer 2014 when Josep, Joan and Jordi Roca closed their restaurant for a period of 5 weeks. In these 5 weeks, they did a tour of the American continent: Roca n’Roll World Tour 2014. They visited six different places; Houston, Dallas, Monterrey, Mexico City, Lima and Bogota.
Food films are popular and easy to combine with a good meal
In Amsterdam we have the Food Film Festival and we hope that during the next edition they run most movies that are exhibited at the Berlinale. During the Berlinale the Michelin-starred chefs Paco Pérez and Christian Lohse (amongst others) will serve menus inspired by the films. The American chef Alice Waters and the president of the Slow Food movement Carlo Petrini will be honored during this Culinary Cinema. We wonder if it will be such a great tribute as Alain Passard received in 2014. And whether the menus that are inspired by the movies will be prepared by the chefs at the Berlinale as original as the chefs at the Dutch Food Film Festival did during last year’s lunch (Proefwerk). In the article from the website Fine Dining Lovers you can see the list of all the culinary movies shown at the Berlinale. You can book tickets on the website of the Berlinale.
Fucking Perfect
27-1-2015
The trailer of the film “Fucking Perfect’ about master chef Sergio Herman is released last week. The film runs in the Dutch cinemas as from 19 March.
Films about chefs
We have already seen a few great examples of films and documentaries with chefs in the leading role, like “The taste of the soul‘ about chefs Erik van Loo and Cees Helder and their restaurant Parkheuvel in Rotterdam (Cees Helder was the first Dutch chef to receive 3 Michelin stars in the Netherlands). Great examples are also the movie about El Bulli and the documentary about Michel Bras. All wonderful movies where the chef and his passion are playing the leading role. The chefs often give the viewer an insight into how they work, but also in their life and their passion for the products they work with. The trailer of ‘Fucking Perfect’ promises this as well.
Fucking Perfect is about ..
The film ‘Fucking Perfect’ follows Sergio Herman from March 2013 until the summer of 2014 and shows the enormous drive of the chef. The pursuit of perfection and the sacrifices he makes to reach his goal. The trailer promises an intimate and honest portrait of Sergio Herman with a peek into the kitchen, his private life and shows the choice he made to start making new dreams come true at the peak of his culinary career. In 2003 he closed his 3-star restaurant Oud Sluis, to start building a new ‘dream’ in Antwerp (Belgium), restaurant The Jane.
Build your own pop-up restaurant
27-1-2015
Soullmate pop up furniture offers every catering entrepreneur or enthusiastic home cook the opportunity to open their own pop-up restaurant for one day or longer. Without having to invest in a kitchen or furniture.
Build your own pop-up restaurant with the Soullmate Event Truck
The trailer of the truck is filled with a complete restaurant for at least 60 people. This consists of seating and a professional outdoor kitchen. The idea behind the seating is based on old fruit boxes, with Sit & Heat, an energy efficient outdoor heater in the form of a cushion providing warmth and comfort. The trailer optionally provides the ability to be used as a stage.
Do you like to show your cooking skills or culinary art to people in other parts of your country? This truck will be easy to use as handy pop-up location! You can quickly calculate how many guests you have to welcome to earn enough: the truck has 60 seats and the rent will be € 1.750,= a day. Great to use at festivals or company parties as well!
Valentine’s Day at a restaurant
20-1-2015
The annual day of love declarations is in our sights again. Every year it’s an exciting day, especially for singles. Will they get an anonymous rose at work or in the classroom? As this year’s Valentine’s Day is on a Saturday, it offers a valuable opportunity for the hospitality industry. A lot of people will enjoy Valentine’s Day at a restaurant. Both for a romantic evenings eating out as well as for the bachelors looking for a singles-only dinner.
Valentine’s Day in the USA
Last year, Valentine’s Day was on a Friday and because many restaurants in America were fully booked, Wieden + Kennedy New York created a social media campaign on behalf of Heineken. By using the #DateInABox hashtag on Twitter women could provoke a declaration of love from their (future) boyfriend. The guys who received the social media love declaration had to share the message to all their Instagram-followers declaring their love via the channel like real romantic ‘softies’. With the hashtag #DateInABox the couples could win a surprise date for two.
Valentine’s day at a restaurant and hospitality / leisure industry
In recent years we have collected inspiring examples for Valentine’s Day at a restaurant and in the hospitality / leisure industry. Some examples are a romantic egg , the ultimate attention as a gift (by putting your phone off) , running a race with your sweetheart or share a gigantic dessert .
Valuas croquette at the Limburg Museum
18-12-2014
The standard & gluten free Valuas croquettes by chef Eric Swaghoven of restaurant Valuas (1 Michelin star) in Venlo is going to be served in the café the Limburgs Museum. They start serving the Dutch specialty (croquette) from the official start of the exhibition “War & Freedom”, along with other culinary snack creations by Eric.
Core values of his culinary snacks
Chef Eric Swaghoven has created his luxury and artisan snacks by the motto; tasteful and conscious snacking. Core values of its croquettes and ‘bitterballen’ (bal size croquettes) are quality, taste and sustainability. The Valuas croquette is the starting point of his line of snacks.
The Valuas croquette at the Limburg Museum
The Limburgs Museum is a family museum and the daily practice at the Museum shows that the visiting youth still prefers to snack during their visit. With that fact in mind, the choice to put the ‘kroketten & bitterballen’ by Valuas on the menu, is a choice for quality snacks.
The Valuas croquette
The Valuas croquette is made with pure beef and a French roux sauce in proportion 35% meat, 45% roux to obtain a 110 grams of croquette. Tasty, full-bodied and creamy because of the broth used for this receipt. They also have a gluten-free version.
Other culinary snacks
In addition to the iconic Valuas croquette, a veal croquette, shrimp croquette, vegetarian croquette and a mushroom croquette will be served in the Museum. Also on the menu: fried king prawns in shrimp crackers crumbs.
The ‘chicken soup’ croquette by grandma Jo Swaghoven-Eupen
The ‘chicken soup’croquette is a tribute to Grandma Jo Swaghoven-Eupen, who did manage café Modern in Venray with her husband, in the years after the war. The chicken soup grandma Jo made has become legendary. The family recipe inspired her grandson Eric to make his ‘chicken soup’ croquettes.
Experience in theater as storytelling for your product
16-12-2014
Undergo storytelling, experience a 3D animation and taste the product in a theater.
Recently I joined one of the theater tryouts by Glennfidich. Tony van Rooijen, the enthusiastic Dutch brand ambassador of the whisky makers gave a virtual tour of the distillery in Scotland during a tasting where he presented six different whiskys.
Experience in theater
Apart from the enthusiastic narrator and a stylish tasting kit, the virtual tour consisted out of a very detailed 3D animation of the brewery that had a lot of resemblance with the computer game ‘The Sims’. While the presenter went through the various stages of the brewing process he showed the buildings of the brewery from the outside and inside. Everywhere there was a visual explanation from a first person view, so you had the illusion walking through the brewery itself without leaving your lazy (theater) chair.
Virtual tour
A virtual tour like this can be very interesting for products with an authentic character. A rookie (like me) gets to see more about the brewing process of whisky and the expert will for example learn more about the typical taste each barrel emits.
Flexibility is the future
For theaters, but also for cinemas this way of a product presentation is an interesting case. The stage remains a wonderful place to tell your story and to combine this with a tasting your product and (controlled) experience of it. At most hospitality fairs and food festivals the stage plays an important role in the total concept thus the hospitality industry is already familiar with these crossover concepts. My experience fits in well with a recent article in Fast Moving Targets that shows that flexibility of the theater is the future. ^Armand
