UNITED TASTES CASE STUDY
The Brief
American agricultural products such as dairy, grains, vegetables, and beef, can be considered higher quality, premium options in the Vietnamese market.
The USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service assigned Vero a mission to create an umbrella brand that would help bring US products together under one master name and convey their superior quality by addressing the negative image traditionally associated with the US Food products.
Execution
Our creative concept: Introduce a new image of US Agricultural products as high-quality, nutritious, healthy, and delicious. The brand we created, United Tastes, stands as an ambassador for a healthy American diet inspired by the United States’ cultural diversity. It is the home of distinctive yet diverse cuisine from the USA.
Sub-text: ” The US has long been known as a “melting pot” of culture. Taking that as an inspiration, we used a salad bowl to represent a nutritious dish with a variety of premium ingredients – a refreshing representation of colors, tastes, and aromas from various ingredients working together harmoniously.
The ingredients complement one another while retaining their distinct qualities. Similarly, American cuisine is a mixture of the culinary contributions of various cultures from around the world whose culinary worlds coexist while remaining distinctive.
We built the brand’s home on a dedicated website, then brought it to media and stakeholders with a unique launch event at the American Consulate in Ho Chi Minh City, as well as through Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and local media.
The launch event emulated a farmer’s market with US trade representatives showcasing whole, delicious American products for media to try. It also served as a diplomatic venue for the US government and its trade representatives to present the United Tastes project and American agricultural products’ unique attributes.
We also leveraged the event to launch the brand’s social channels, premiering a Facebook Live cooking show where the American Consul General in Ho Chi Minh city, Mrs. Marie C. Damour, re-visited her childhood dishes with a local chef.
Post-launch, our teams maintained momentum through dedicated social strategies – engaging with fans, influencers, and student organizations on social platforms and communities to spread the word about United Tastes. Throughout 2021, we also coordinated with US trade cooperators to leverage the new brand as a hub for their messages. Together with Vero, the USDA and their stakeholders have been working on Trello – a co-working space to contribute ideas, co-develop campaigns, and update related projects.
We reached end consumers and engaged in conversations with them through ongoing social content, monthly minigames on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, and regular blog posts on the United Tastes website. In addition, we supported other USDA stakeholders with their seasonal promotions through content creation and influencer engagement via United Tastes platforms.