February is Super Bowl month, where many CPG brands will pay $6.5 million for a 30-second spot and hope it resonates with consumers and increases sales. This year, Lay’s potato chips will run its first ad during the game in 17 years. The brand is promoting a new line of chips made with potatoes grown in NFL stadium soil. The idea is to capitalize on the love that football fans have for their favorite NFL team's home field.

Lay's created the limited-edition line of Lay's Golden Grounds chips by pulling soil directly from NFL stadiums and fields across the country. Under the careful watch of Frito-Lay farmers, they mixed the soil into separate parts of the potato field to make chips infused with the grounds and the glory of each NFL team. The limited-edition bags also feature keepsake packaging decked out with NFL team colors and logos.

What do you think about this? Is it smart marketing or too gimmicky?

Another event happening in February that I’ll be attending, is Converters Expo South. Unlike the Super Bowl, there are zero gimmicks. This straight-forward event unites the Southeast converting region’s top material converters and manufacturers across the region’s array of industries.

The event is in-person on February 23 at the Charlotte Convention Center in Charlotte, N.C.

Now in its fourth year, Converters Expo South is expecting to bring almost 100 exhibitors and more than 500 attendees to support the converting industry.

New to this year's event are vendor education sessions. These 10- to 15-minute videos presented by GEW, Midwest Engineered Systems and Erhardt+Leimer will be played onsite, and representatives will be available to answer questions afterward. Each session will be available online for 12 months at ConvertersExpoSouth.com.

Event registration, agenda and information about travel and accommodations are all available at ConvertersExpoSouth.com.

Hope to see you there!

Kristin Joker
Editor in Chief

(248) 227-4727

jokerk@bnpmedia.com