Osito Bimbo
The Challenge
As the beloved brand mascot of the world’s largest baking company, Osito Bimbo’s celebrity status transcended his role as the personification of the Grupo Bimbo brand. Born out of the imagination of the company founder’s wife, this “Little Bear” had been synonymous with healthy, happy childhood memories since 1945.
Despite its growing global reach, Grupo Bimbo and its cherished icon were relatively unknown outside of Latin America and Western Europe. Recognizing Osito’s strong emotional and brand equites in existing markets, it became evident that the icon could be leveraged to engage existing consumers to introduce brands to new markets.
The challenge lay in rendering this little white bear from humble hand-sketched beginnings, relevant to a modern, global, tech-savvy generation, while retaining the core values that attracted the existing loyal following.
The Solution
Employing Pigeon’s proprietary Strategic InsightsTM process, C-suite stakeholders were brought on-site to Toronto for a series of in-depth interviews, interactive workshops and global analysis, designed to inform a holistic and harmonized strategy for Osito Bimbo’s revitalized brand identity and modernized expression.
Entrusted with the stewardship of Bimbo’s cherished icon, creative engaged a multi-faceted approach – breathing new life and relevance to the iconic but dated 2D Osito Bimbo, though a multitude of expressions ranging from: computer-generated three-dimensional poses, video animations, emoticons, social media applications, packaging graphics and multiple brand extensions, to corporate communications.
The Results
Presented as a limited-edition coffee table book, the Osito Bimbo Magic Book was unveiled in Querétaro, Mexico during the 2019 closing ceremonies of Grupo Bimbo Global Business Forum to a crowd of 1,200 international marketers.
The ‘Magic Book’ continues to arm marketers of Grupo Bimbo’s iconic brand with strategies, tools and guidelines for brand expression across multiple channels, mediums and cultures to ensure consumer engagement and is revered as the gold standard.
