A tribute to the Mediterranean Diet and its Portuguese guardians, ensuring that its legacy lives on.
The Juliana project for Jerónimo Martins and Pingo Doce updates and enhances the two institutions' commitment to one of the healthiest food standards in the world: the Portuguese Mediterranean Diet. To further this ambition, together with their decision makers and marketing teams, we created a 360º communication project.
Jerónimo Martins and Pingo Doce aimed to achieve a fresh perspective on the Portuguese Mediterranean Diet. The initiative aimed to integrate this dietary tradition into modern life, promoting health, sustainability, and cultural heritage.
One significant challenge of the Mediterranean Diet is making it tangible for the general public and integrating it into their daily lives. In a year as atypical as 2020, witnessing the courage of Jerónimo Martins and Pingo Doce to innovate and make things happen was an inspiration for the market and our teams.
Working in close partnership with Jerónimo Martins’ team, we studied the Mediterranean Diet, talked to foremost Portuguese specialists on the subject, searched for and met Portuguese female guardians from all over the country who own and still cook the local traditional recipes, and we understood and scaled Jerónimo Martins' goals and ambition for this project
We understood that part of this diet's necessary regeneration lies in its ability to reinvent how it engages with new consumers and that the food distribution market must be able to tell stories because we all enjoy talking about food. It’s cultural and personal. Besides that, the project needed a scientific, educational, and commercial approach.
We wanted to tell a story based on food, people, and local culture. Juliana is a name that pays tribute to women because, in the Mediterranean tradition, they were the ones improving and passing on Portuguese gastronomic knowledge. But it is also a way to cut the vegetables, so typical in the Mediterranean Diet, the name of a soup of great nutritional value with more than two centuries of existence, and—as we discovered on the ground—the name of a fish that makes beautiful stews in Peniche.
“Juliana is our tribute to the Portuguese Mediterranean Diet, to ancient knowledge, to kitchen secrets, to the hands that work the fields and prepare authentic meals, seasoned with our history and essence, to nourish our future.” - Pingo Doce
Juliana’s visual identity enriches the story its name embraces. The type is rough but also soft and caring. It is focused on the handmade/crafted and traditional while representing the love every female guardian puts into every dish. The vibrant colours show the diversity of ingredients and ways to cut, prepare, and cook them.
We created a storytelling approach that allowed us to expand the target audience for a topic that had previously interested only a few. From there, the project grew organically. The project was based on three pillars: scientific, educational and commercial
More than just a soup, Juliana became a symbol of the Portuguese Mediterranean Diet. The advertising campaign that increased sales of soups in Pingo Doce shops and guaranteed the brand Top of Mind in the Publivaga study (October - January 20/21) while the exhibition gathered thousands of visitors at Lisbon's main square - Terreiro do Paço - and the whole project generated hundreds of news items in Earned Media.
“Undoubtedly, it is one of the most significant distribution projects in recent years, a story that is beginning now and could have a rejuvenating impact on the relationship of the Portuguese people with our culinary traditions.” - Duarte Vilaça, Born CCO
