Del Real Foods unveils ‘It’s About To Get Real’ Campaign to promote line of Authentic Mexican Foods.

Del Real Foods launched an integrated media campaign to promote its line of heat-and-serve Mexican food. Unlike many of its competitors, the company prides itself on sourcing ingredients locally whenever possible and cooking its products in small batches to preserve the unique flavor of Mexican home-cooked meals.

This focus on Mexican authenticity and quality ingredients is the inspiration for the “It’s About To Get Real” campaign where the brand differentiates itself in a prepared foods category that consumers perceive to be full of preservatives and poor quality ingredients.

“With significant growth over the years, the time was right to establish a clear market position for the Del Real Foods brand that promotes exactly who we are and what we stand for: authentic, great tasting Mexican food that is refrigerated, not frozen,” said Herb Bowden, VP of Marketing and Sales at Del Real Foods. “Our process in bringing customers real food that is preservative free and easy to prepare is what separates us from our competitors. This campaign helps deliver these key brand benefits in a smart, yet humorous, way,” he added.

The mixed media campaign utilizes broadcast television, digital billboards, transit advertising, social media engagement and content marketing targeting women in the Los Angeles and San Francisco markets. Each aperture of the campaign takes a unique approach prompting consumers to look beyond cultural stereotypes to find real, great tasting Mexican food.

The narrative of the campaign takes a two-pronged approach that focuses on raising brand awareness and driving consumer engagement of the Del Real Foods brand. To break through the clutter, advertising efforts leverage humor through a “trio” of Mexican cultural characters who desire to be taken more seriously than what outsiders assume them to be. These characters, Piti “the piñata,” Mario “the skateboarding Mariachi” and Lucho “the Luchador” are all proud of their Mexican heritage but don’t let cultural stereotypes define them. Each character has a background story: when he’s not working birthday parties and corporate events, Piti enjoys traveling Europe. Mario doesn’t let his age hinder his dream of signing a major skateboarding sponsorship and behind the mask, Lucho is a sensitive family man who works in sales.

To drive consumer engagement, digital channels shift towards a blend of “trio” content alongside “edutainment” videos demonstrating how easy it is to create delicious meals with Del Real Foods products. The campaign also employs an influencer program that engages directly with leading food bloggers. Finally, this summer the brand is a featured sponsor of the LA Dodgers.

“Mario, Lucho and Piti, are all carefully crafted personas that are humorous in culturally relevant ways to LA and SF, where Mexican and American cultures blend to create unique mash-ups all their own,” said Marcus Jiménez, Principal of Huemanitas, the agency partner tasked to develop the campaign. He added, “The goal is to prompt consumers to look past their own stereotypical view that all Mexican food products are the same.”

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