Marketing Mixtape Builds Pasta Brand
I’m always on the lookout for smart marketing ideas. So, when I read about Barilla pasta’s playlist timer, it caught my attention.
(Full disclosure: I’m not the cook at my house. Michael handles the planning and preparation of dinner each day. The kids and I give him a full 5 stars for most of his culinary efforts – especially when he utilizes his Italian grandparents’ recipes and makes one of his many pasta specialties for us.)
Even though I’m not in charge of the pasta cooking these days, I remember the challenges of getting the timing just right when I was single and in charge of my own dinner prep. I always felt like dried pasta should be easy to cook, and yet, somehow, the texture that Italian restaurants so effortless perfect always eluded me. It seemed like if I left the pasta boiling 30 seconds too long or too little, then I would end up with overcooked mush or a bowl of something crunchy and inedible for dinner.
Obviously I’m not the only one that is ‘al dente’ challenged, so Barilla created a solution to help home cooks everywhere through this collaboration with Spotify. They’ve developed “Playlist Timers” which is a series of playlists timed to last for precisely as long as you should cook your pasta. Each playlist is named for the type of pasta you are preparing including: Mixtape Spaghetti, Boom Bap Fusilli, Pleasant Melancholy Penne, Moody Day Linguine, Top Hits Spaghetti, Best Song Penne, Timeless Emotion Fusilli, and Simply Classics Linguine. The different genres of music include pop, hip-hop, indie, and oldies covered by Italian artists. All you have to do is hit play once your water starts to boil, and then drain it when the music stops.
GENIUS!
You can listen to each of the Barilla playlists here:
Bon Appetit! And happy listening!
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