Pão de Queijo Fit — a healthier life with more flavour
Launch of a functional pão de queijo — wholegrain, multigrain, gluten-free, lactose-free — written to enter the health conversation without disowning the comfort food that made the brand.
Context
Brazilians were exercising more, eating more mindfully, and putting quality-of-life at the centre of a rushed routine. Forno de Minas wanted to enter that shift without renouncing its comfort-food birthright.
The product itself sat on a rare duality: comfort food (pleasure, affection, Minas, made with care) and functional food (wholegrain, multigrain, no lactose, no gluten, a source of fibre, calcium and protein). The intersection of those two kitchens became the axis of the launch.
The audience was framed as fitness-oriented women, 25+, and the influence plan built on three complementary fronts — Fitness (weight training, crossfit, running, cycling, gymnastics), Health (personal trainers, nutritionists) and Well-being (meditation, yoga, everyday life, beauty, resilience).
Challenge
Introduce a healthier variant into the Forno de Minas family and build awareness across São Paulo, the São Paulo interior, the Centre-West, Rio, Minas, Paraná and Rio Grande do Sul in a single month — April 2016 — without sounding like a diet concession, and without leaving the comfort territory the brand already owned.
Role
I led launch strategy at Content House. My work was reading the healthy-living territory to find the tension between self-control and permissiveness that would authorise the product, shaping the big idea around a live event, and structuring the influencer plan into three legible fronts.
Approach
Read the health tension, not the health trend
The interesting reading was not that Brazilians wanted to eat better — it was that they wanted permission to enjoy without guilt. That tension is what the Fit variant had to resolve.
Anchor the launch on a live moment
Desafio FIT by Keith Thompson — an unprecedented spinning class with the American 'spin guy', hosted by fit couple Mari Gonzalez and Jonas Sulzback, split into two teams, streamed live on Facebook under #TeamMari and #TeamJonas.
Make the benefit tangible on stage
A Fitômetro mechanic converted the calories burned during the class into Fit pães de queijo for the celebration afterwards — 'healthier life with more flavour', made visible in the room.
Structure influence as three fronts
Three hundred influencers curated across Fitness, Health and Well-being, with a launch kit (exclusive tote, exercise deck by a personal trainer, Fit sample) and a sustainment kit (activity wristband) to extend the conversation past the event.
Execution
- 01Launch platform and 'healthier life with more flavour' concept
- 02Desafio FIT by Keith Thompson activation with live streaming
- 03Launch and sustainment kits for 300 influencers
- 04Product hotsite, POS materials, and April 2016 media plan
Outcome
The launch of Pão de Queijo Fit landed as a live fitness experience — anchored in a streamed activation, three curated influence fronts, and a mechanic that translated the functional benefit without letting go of the affection the pão de queijo carries in Brazil.
Credits
- ClientForno de Minas
- AgencyContent House
- StrategyBruno Rothstein
- CreativeBruno Mizogutti
- HostKeith Thompson
- CastMari Gonzalez and Jonas Sulzback
- LocationSpin 'n Soul
