Friday, June 25, 2010

We Rate Stuff

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Sabra Hummus
June 25, 2010
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Hummus Review
Hummus is a delicious snack I only started to eat in the past few years, but I'm glad I did. It as an exquisite taste and there are a million different versions to try it in, like Supremely Spicy, Roasted Garlic, Sun Dried Tomato, and more. More on the other side.

Hummus was an entirely foreign concept to me a few years ago. I mean I'm 25% Persian so that's kind of ridiculous, but it pretty much also explains why I love it so damn much now. I first tried it at a hookah bar and was basically blown away. If you don't know what Hummus consists of, it's basically chick peas, or garbanzo beans, crushed up into a paste, with various spices and a bit of oil. It's simple to make at home for extremely cheap, and the price in stores isn't too bad. The best part is it's relatively healthy and a great substitute for when I'd otherwise be eating some type of meat.

Now, I've had multiple brands of hummus, store-bought, home-made, etc. Home-made hummus has the advantage of your ability to control the taste and healthiness of it, but for some reason I can never get it to taste as good as Sabra brand hummus. I don't know what they do, but it blows my taste buds away every time I eat it. In fact I'm eating it right now, and it has never tasted better. Sabra has tons of different flavors of hummus, too; for example, my favorites are Supremely Spicy (finely chopped up spanish peppers and spices), Roasted Garlic (finely chopped garlic), and Original. They have lots of exotic flavors like Jalapeño, Luscious Lemon, Chipotle, Hummus with Salsa (can't find it but dying to try it), Greek Olive, and more.

If you've never tasted hummus, it's thick and pasty like a bean dip or something. It's very savory with almost a smokey hint to it. It has an intense taste, which is great. I usually get a container of Sabra hummus and a six pack of Toufayan whole wheat pita bread and boom, there's basically two meals. You can dip whatever you want in it, too; when I get tired of dipping bread in it, I use tortilla chips and it's a whole different taste and textural experience. Hummus is basically a superfood; it's lightweight, relatively healthy, relatively cheap (about $5.28 for the hummus and pita bread where I get it), absolutely delicious, and comes in an enormous variety of flavors. And nobody does it better than Sabra.

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Vending Times

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Sabra Launches Mediterranean Foods Ad Campaign

June 17, 2010
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ASTORIA, NY -- Sabra Dipping Co. LLC, a joint venture between the Strauss Group and the Frito-Lay North America division of PepsiCo, is kicking off a nationwide multimedia advertising campaign to promote its wide variety of vegetarian spreads and dips.

Advertising Age reported that Sabra tested the campaign in five regional markets last year and, based on its success, has expanded it nationwide. Launched last week, it includes television commercials, websites, digital ads, and a presence in social media like Facebook and Twitter, along with other promotions and events.

The campaign proposes to rescue those "in need of a taste intervention" by getting them to try Sabra’s hummus (offered in 15 flavors), babaganoush, ratatouille, Turkish salad and more. Visitors to the campaign website, sabraintervention.com, can nominate family members and friends who need an intervention to help them "get out of a food rut." The website offers visitors the opportunity to enter a sweepstakes, offering a trip to Turkey as first prize.

The television commercials position Sabra as a delicious way to "taste the Mediterranean without leaving home." They're intended to promote the Sabra line to the growing ranks of Mediterranean-diet enthusiasts who already enjoy the vegetarian classics, and to introduce them to those unfamiliar with the time-honored staple dishes.

Ad Age said Sabra plans to spend "significantly" more on advertising this year than the estimated $3.3 million it spent last year.

The company opened a new $61 million manufacturing plant in Richmond, VA, last month. Plans call for moving all production to Richmond by September, and relocating company headquarters to the area.

All Sabra products are certified kosher, and all its hummus and eggplant items are pareve. They’re offered in a variety of formats including single-serve "grab-and-go packs."

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Wednesday, June 9, 2010

PR Newswire

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PR Newswire
June 9, 2010
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VIDEO from Synaptic Digital and Sabra: Sabra Dipping Company Launches a Nationwide Taste Intervention, Rescuing Millions from 'The Food Rut'

Sabra Dipping Company, the leading manufacturer of refrigerated flavored dips, is breaking through the mundane and inspiring millions of Americans to expand their food horizons. The integrated campaign will begin with TV advertising and a national promotion featuring individuals in need of a "taste intervention" allowing Americans to rescue those most deserving. The campaign and all integrated elements online and offline will launch by June 7th, 2010.

See video from Sabra at: http://inr.synapticdigital.com/Sabra_37415

"It happens to the best of us! We've all fallen into a food rut from time to time," said Mina Penna for Sabra Dipping Company. "We sometimes need a little help expanding our culinary horizons and Sabra's new campaign shows how easy it is to do this while providing powerful experiences with our brand."

The integrated campaign will reach millions of consumers through TV, website, online banners, publicity and social media elements.

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Sabra Interactive News Release

Sabra Interactive News Release
Live: May 26, 2010
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Sabra on the Air

WWBT-NBC RICHMOND-PETERSBURG, VA
MAY 27 2010 6:00AM ET
12 News Today
Nielsen Audience: 61,076

WRLH RICHMOND-PETERSBURG, VA
MAY 26 2010 10:00PM ET
Fox News at 10
Nielsen Audience: 67,061

SABRA DIPPING COMPANY HELD IT'S GRAND OPENING IN CHESTERFIELD COUNTY. THE COMPANY IS CREATING 260 NEW JOBS IN A NEW, ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY, FOOD MANUFACTURING PLANT. SABRA MAKES HUMMUS AND MEDITERRANEAN DIPS. THE COMPANY OUTGREW ITS PLANT IN QUEENS, NEW YORK. OFFICIALS SAY IT WAS VIRGINIA'S SKILLED WORKFORCE, SHORT DISTANCE TO A PORT, AND STATE AND LOCAL INCENTIVES THAT BROUGHT SABRA TO CHESTERFIELD. 100 WORKERS HAVE ALREADY BEEN HIRED, SABRA WILL HIRE 160 MORE BY SEPTEMBER, PRIMARILY TRAINED MACHINE OPERATORS, WHO WILL WORK IN ONE OF THREE DIFFERENT ROUND-THE-CLOCK SHIFTS. TO APPLY FOR A JOB, GO TO SABRA. COM, THE VIRGINIA EMPLOYMENT COMMISSION, OR ANY THE CAPITAL REGION WORKFORCE CENTER.

WRIC-ABC RICHMOND-PETERSBURG, VA
MAY 26 2010 6:00PM ET
8 News @ 6PM
Nielsen Audience: 44,463
MAY 26 2010 5:30PM ET
8 News at 530
Nielsen Audience: 29,448

260-JOBS ARE COMING TO CHESTERFIELD NOW THAT A NATIONAL SNACK DIP COMPANY HAS CUT THE RIBBON TO ITS NEW PLANT. NEW YORK-BASED "SABRA" MAKES PRODUCTS LIKE HUMMUS AND OTHER REFRIGERATED DIPS, THE COMPANY REPRESENTS ABOUT 40-PERCENT OF THAT MARKET. GOVERNOR BOB MCDONNELL WAS ON HAND TODAY TO WELCOME SABRA TO VIRGINIA. "THIS IS MORE TO ME THAN THE OPENING OF A PLANT THAT'S GOING TO CREATE HEALTHY FOOD, IT'S A CONTINUATION OF SOMETHING WE'VE WORKED ON FOR 15 YEARS." THE MANUFACTURING PLANT IS LOCATED OFF RUFFIN MILL ROAD.


WWBT-NBC RICHMOND-PETERSBURG, VA
MAY 26 2010 5:00PM ET
12 News at 5
Nielsen Audience: 66,483

SABRA DIPPING COMPANY, A FOOD MANUFACTURING PLANT, HELD ITS GRAND OPENING IN CHESTERFIELD COUNTY TODAY. THE COMPANY IS CREATING 260 NEW JOBS.
SABRA IS A FOOD MANUFACTURING PLANT THAT'S KNOWN FOR MAKING HUMMUS AND NOW THEY'RE GOING TO BE MAKING IT HERE IN THIS PLANT IN COLONIAL HEIGHTS THAT THEY HAVE BUILT TO BE ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY AND TO CREATE 260 JOBS. SABRA HAS ONLY BEEN MAKING HUMMUS IN MEDITERRANEAN DIPS SINCE 2007, BUT THE COMPANY ALREADY OUTGREW ITS PLANT IN QUEENS, NEW YORK. AFTER CONSIDERING OTHER SITES IN NORTH CAROLINA AND NEW JERSEY, VIRGINIA'S SKILLED WORKFORCE, SHORT DISTANCE TO THE PORT, AND INCENTIVES BROUGHT SABRA TO CHESTERFIELD. THERE WERE BOTH STATE AND LOCAL INCENTIVES INVOLVE HERE AS WELL AS FAST TRACKING THIS THROUGH THE PROCESS. THIS BUILDING WAS BUILT IN 13 MONTHS, WHICH IS A RECORD FOR A BUILDING OF THIS TYPE.
PRODUCTS ARE ALREADY BEING MADE BY 100 STAFFERS, POWERED FORWARD BY PARENT COMPANY PEPSICO AND ISRAELI FOOD MAKER STRAUSS. I SO LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING THIS COMPANY CONTINUE TO PROSPER AND GROW.


WTVR-CBS RICHMOND-PETERSBURG
MAY 26 2010 5:00PM ET
News 6 Live @ 5
Nielsen Audience: 46,518

ALSO IN CHESTERFIELD. SABRA DIPPING COMPANY OPENS ITS NEWEST HUMMUS PLANT. A RIBBON CUTTING WAS HELD AT THE PLANT NEAR COLONIAL HEIGHTS THIS MORNING. IT'S A 61-MILLION DOLLAR FACILITY THAT'S EXPECTED TO BRING 260 NEW JOBS TO THE AREA. THE WAVE OF NEW JOBS THIS FACTORY IS BRINGING TO CHESTERFIELD MAY NOT BE THE LAST. SABRA HAS ALSO EXPRESSED INTEREST IN MOVING ITS HEADQUARTERS FROM NEW YORK TO THE RICHMOND AREA.


WWBT-NBC RICHMOND-PETERSBURG, VA
MAY 26 2010 4:00PM ET
12 News First at 4
Nielsen Audience: 48,094

THE LID IS OFF A NEW MULTIMILLION-DOLLAR BUSINESS VENTURE BRINGING HUNDREDS OF JOBS TO CHESTERFIELD. AN INTERNATIONAL FOOD MANUFACTURING COMPANY WILL BE COOKING AND PACKAGING ITS PRODUCTS HERE IN CENTRAL VIRGINIA. YOU MAY ALREADY BE A CONSUMER OF HUMMUS MADE BY SABRA. AHEAD AT 5:00, HEATHER SULLIVAN TAKES US TO THE ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY LOCAL PLANT WHERE IT'LL BE MADE.


WWBT-NBC RICHMOND-PETERSBURG, VA
MAY 26 2010 12:00PM ET
12 News at Noon
Nielsen Audience: 33,741

MAY 26 2010 6:30AM ET
12 News Today 2
Nielsen Audience: 73,874

MAY 26 2010 5:00AM ET
12 News at 5
Nielsen Audience: 21,274

OPENING A NEW MANUFACTURING PLANT IN COLONIAL HEIGHTS TODAY. THE FOOD MANUFACTURING PLANT IS CREATE 260 NEW JOBS AND THE COMPANY SAYS IT'S GREEN MEANING IT WILL MINIMIZE ITS IMPACT ON THE COMMUNITY AND USE RENEWABLE RESOURCES. GOVERNOR MCDONNELL WILL BE THERE FOR THE RIBBON CUTTING.


WRIC-ABC RICHMOND-PETERSBURG, VA
MAY 26 2010 9:30AM ET
Showcase Richmond
Nielsen Audience: 23,408

NEW AT 9 A FOOD COMPANY WILL SOON OPEN A NEW PLANT IN CENTRAL VIRGINIA. AWE'RE TALKING ABOUT THE SNACK DIP COMPANY SABRA. THEY'RE KNOWN FOR THEIR HUMMUS. A RIBBON CUTTING IS TAKING PLACE HERE IN CHESTERFIELD COUNTY OFF PORT WALTHALL DRIVE. THE NEW YORK-BASED COMPANY MAKES A VARIETY OF REFRIGERATED DIPS AND SPREADS. THE NEW 61-MILLION DOLLAR MANUFACTURING PLANT IS EXPECTED TO EMPLOY ABOUT 260 PEOPLE. HUMMUS HAS MOVED BEYOND THE ETHNIC FOOD NICHE, FILLING SUPERMARKET REFRIGERATORS AND SHOWING UP ON RESTAURANT MENUS.


WSET-ABC ROANOKE-LYNCHBURG, VA
MAY 27 2010 6:00AM ET
ABC 13 News Good Morning VA
Nielsen Audience: 15,846

MAY 26 2010 11:00PM ET
ABC 13 News at 11
Nielsen Audience: 27,335

SNACK DIP COMPANY SABRA IS BRINGING 300 JOBS TO THE STATE. THEY HELD A RIBBON-CUTTING TODAY ON THEIR NEW MANUFACTURING PLANT. GOVERNOR MCDONNELL WAS THERE. THE PLANT WILL MAKE HUMMUS. THE COMPANY MAKES A RANGE OF REFRIGERATED DIPS AND SPREADS THAT ARE ALL KOSHER AND VEGETARIAN. THE NEW 70-MILLION DOLLAR CHESTERFIELD COUNTY PLANT TOOK 14 MONTHS TO BUILD.

Monday, June 7, 2010

Richmond BizSense

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Sabra Spreads Out
June 7, 2010
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Sabra Dipping Company made a splash in the area by investing $61 million in Chesterfield to build a new hummus factory in Chesterfield.

With its new facility in place the New York-based company, which is a joint venture between Frito-Lay and an Israeli food and beverage company, is ready to make a nationwide push for exposure.

According to a story in the New York Times that means ramping up its ad budget, embracing social media, going on a cross country tasting tour, and holding a contest.

The Sabra brand manager told the New York Times that they plan on significantly increasing last year’s ad spending of $3.3 million.

Sabra is also holding a contest called Sabra Taste Intervention that offers a first place trip to Turkey, with a second prize of a home dinner party prepared by the company’s in house chef. The premise is to nominate yourself or a friend who is stuck in a food rut, and needs more flavor in their life.

Sabra executives have said they plan on moving the company’s headquarters to Richmond from Queens, New York.

Sunday, June 6, 2010

The New York Times



The New York Times
June 6, 2010
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THE economy has remade the Madison Avenue landscape in myriad ways, among them changing the types of products that are advertised frequently now compared with during the boom years.

In other words, Hummer, no; hummus, yes.

Shorthand, to be sure, but it encapsulates a major trend: Ads for glossy, big-ticket purchases like behemoth sport utilities have been supplanted in many instances by ads for prosaic, less expensive products like packaged foods.

Several food marketers increased ad spending markedly in the first quarter compared with the period a year ago, according to the Kantar Media research division of WPP. Among them were ConAgra Foods, up 22.9 percent; H. J. Heinz, up 45.2 percent; Hershey, up 81.2 percent; General Mills, up 15.5 percent; Kraft Foods, up 17.8 percent; and J. M. Smucker, up 12.4 percent.

Among the brands planning to spend more throughout 2010 is the Sabra line of refrigerated dips and spreads that includes more than a dozen varieties of, yes, hummus. Sabra is sold by the Sabra Dipping Company, a joint venture of the Strauss Group and the Frito-Lay North America division of PepsiCo.

Although the name of a soft drink predominates in the corporate brand, PepsiCo estimates that $10 billion of its annual revenue of $43.2 billion last year came from what it calls its “good-for-you portfolio” of products like Aquafina water, Near East couscous, Quaker Oats and Tropicana juices.

Among those products are smaller brands like Sabra, Naked juices, Smartfood snacks, Stacy’s pita chips and True North nuts.

PepsiCo intends to “rapidly expand” its lineup of healthier fare, according to the company’s 2009 annual report, by taking steps like “investing to accelerate the growth of these platforms” — in other words, more advertising.

A campaign for Sabra that was tested in five regional markets last year “performed well, better than our expectations,” said Mina Penna, Sabra brand manager at Sabra Dipping in Astoria, Queens, so it is being expanded, beginning on Monday, into a national initiative.

The campaign will include television commercials, two Web sites, digital ads, a presence in social media like Facebook and Twitter, ads in stores, promotions and events like a chefs’ tour of 19 cities and house parties where guests can sample Sabra products.

The campaign is being created by the New York office of StrawberryFrog, which also creates ads for Stacy’s and True North. The premise of the humorous campaign, which carries the theme “Adventure awaits,” is that Sabra is just what a pallid palate craves.

People who enjoy what they eat and like to try new tastes “sometimes fall into a ‘food rut’ and lose their way a bit on their epicurean journey,” Ms. Penna said, as symbolized in the ads by a rote reliance on Chinese takeout, lettuce-only salads or even — gasp! — spray cheese.

The campaign proposes saving all the unfortunates who are “in need of a taste intervention,” as an announcer declares, by switching them to Sabra.

Visitors to sabraintervention.com will be able to nominate family members and friends for comestible makeovers.

(Coincidentally, Kraft last month introduced a humorous campaign for its Sandwich Shop Mayo line of flavored mayonnaise that carries the theme “Give your sandwich a makeover” and features cast members of the HGTV reality series “Design Star” intervening in the lives of bored eaters.)

“We use the term ‘epicurious’ ” to describe the target audience, said Chip Walker, partner and head of planning at StrawberryFrog New York. (The Condé Nast Digital unit of Advance Publications likes the term, too, judging by its epicurious.com Web site.)

Some potential buyers of Sabra are “adventurous eaters who we haven’t quite connected with yet,” Mr. Walker said, and some are “people who don’t know what hummus is or what it tastes like.”

To help out the latter, commercials from the test last year, which describe Sabra as a delicious way to “taste the Mediterranean without leaving home,” will promote the hummus and perhaps introduce some people to it.

In addition to StrawberryFrog New York, others working on the campaign include OMD in New York, a media agency that is part of the Omnicom Group, and Seymour Public Relations in Bergenfield, N.J.

Sabra Dipping will spend “significantly” more on advertising this year than the estimated $3.3 million it spent last year, Ms. Penna said. She declined to be more specific.

The first of 19 cities on the chefs’ tour, called the Sabra Taste Adventure, is Richmond, Va., near a new, $61 million manufacturing plant that Sabra Dipping opened last month. Sabra Dipping executives have said they plan to move the company’s headquarters to the Richmond area from Astoria.

That would make it a rough year for New Yorkers who like their local food companies. First, the bakery Stella D’oro closed its plant in the Bronx, and now Sabra is going to leave Queens.