Hiya. Christine Tatum, founder of Media Salad, here.
So, I recently was invited to give a presentation about our company to a sizable crowd, and I needed a simple way to give everyone an idea of how we work — and how our team could deliver smart, savvy market insights to them. As a result, what we call a “public portal” was born.
After all, we can’t show off a “private,” password-protected portal belonging to one of our clients — such as, oh, say, the cyber-security firm that serves the federal government.
C’mon. You know we can’t.
For demonstration purposes, we figured we could settle on a subject that a couple of members of our team are passionate about: Spanish food and wine. We love Spain. (My great-grandmother was from the southern city of Cádiz. My husband played a Spanish tennis tournament to win the money needed to pay for my engagement ring. My children attend an international school in Denver recognized by Spain’s Ministry of Education. I could go on and on …)
My Media Salad colleagues and I also have been following Spain’s troubled economy and various food and wine markets with great interest. The country is working aggressively to export goods and services well beyond its traditional European stomping grounds. Its unique offerings are of fine quality and winning more hearts — and money — around the world. Take, for example, England, where the country’s largest grocery chains are reporting that Spanish foods are outselling longstanding Italian favorites. One grocery-store representative even announced that Spanish foods are the fastest growing segment of new cuisine in Great Britain. Ireland is raving about the flavors of Spain’s traditional tapas, too.
Simply put, we believe American companies will find great business opportunities in Spain — and we know we’re the right people to assist their market research.
The portal we’ve spun up is partially functioning and intentionally designed to provide only an idea of what Media Salad could do for your company or organization. Still, I’m pleased that we’ve identified an information niche that we happen to like — and that also stands to deliver a decent public service. When we looked around, we found very few websites that draw from Spanish news organizations, government agencies and universities, and from sources around the world to deliver to native English speakers a thoughtful, clear and connected look at Spain’s food and wine industries. (Online translation tools are going to get you only so far …)
Sure, you could drop tens of thousands of dollars on pricey market reports — but by visiting us first, maybe you’ll have a better sense of whether those reports would be worth the expense.
We plan to spin up plenty of other “public portals” that are focused on niche information that isn’t found easily. I’ll introduce those as they launch.
And yes, my presentation went well.