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SuperJam takes off in South Korea!
I've just got back from a two week visit to South Korea - not only one of my favourite countries but one of SuperJam's most successful markets. We sell almost 2% of all the jam eaten in the country and are the fastest-growing brand of jam - thanks to our amazing team.
Our strategy has been to invest in running many sampling events, tea parties as well as creating recipes to share ideas for how jam can fit into Korean cuisine.
Here are a few pictures from my recent visit. You can see more, as well as some of the Korean publicity surrounding my visit, at www.superjam.kr
I gave a few lectures about packaging and design - the biggest was at The Korea Herald's K-Style Design Festival.
We made a 2-metre long SuperJam-filled cake to celebrate, with the help of this little girl.
At our 'Jam Party' for SuperJam supporters, team, customers and volunteers, I was forced to sing 'Jammin' by Bob Marley..
We've had fun experimenting with lots of traditional Korean recipes - like these beautiful flower pancakes.
I hosted a cookery class for SuperJam's top customers - sharing recipes for how best to use SuperJam in Korean cooking.
We held an event for Korean grandmothers, where they shared their secret recipes with me - I promised not to commercialise them! We all went out for a great lunch with Korean young people, which the grandmothers loved. They told me I aught to be married by now though...
A 4-metre tall picture of me might have been printed...
We exhibited our products at the British Embassy, Seoul as part of the British Government's 'Great Week' event.
I chose the perfect time of year to visit, with cherry blossom right outside our office in Gangnam.
SuperJam Korea's company rescue cat, 'Grapefruit', wasn't very sure about this Jam Boy fellow.
Most importantly, I got to eat more of my favourite Korean food - Pat Bing Su. Shaved green tea ice cream with red beans, rice cakes, almonds and matcha ice cream. So delicious!
SuperJam Easter Tea Parties!
Here's a little video of a signalong at a recent SuperJam Tea Party.
And some pictures:
You can find out more about how to get involved in starting a SuperJam Tea Party in your own community at www.superjamteaparties.com
SuperJam Launches in Korea!
Speaking at the Herald Design Forum, where I met Tim Brown, CEO of IDEO. He blogged about my speech here. :-)
I've just got back from an incredible trip to Seoul, South Korea.
It was one of the most exciting cities I have been to - and although I shouldn't make generalisations about a country based on a 2-week crash course - Koreans have an incredibly fast culture and an amazingly futuristic society, are as polite and almost as clean as the Japanese but perhaps more open to ideas from outside.
Their hospitality and kindness surpassed anything i've experienced in the 50+ countries i've visited over the past few years. My Korean business partners organised an exhilarating schedule, making use of every minute of my time in the country - whether to promote our business, teach me their language and culture or enjoy their amazing food.
It is a country that values amazing design - their fashion and packaging is world-class, has one of the best cuisines in the world (I discovered Pat Bing Su, Naing Mjong and $300 mushrooms) and more than anything, an amazing amount of energy and ambition - a Korean school year is almost 300 days, compared to around 180 in the US, and it's not unusual to see kids studying in coffee shops at midnight...
Probably the biggest piece of media coverage my visit received was a feature on the MBN TV News. You can see the clip here.
We spent some time promoting SuperJam, with my amazing colleagues at SuperJam Korea - we're on sale in the beautiful Shinsagae Department Stores (above, with store manager).
Speaking at the World Knowledge Forum.
Beautiful packaging.
Behind me is North Korea.
We ate at a few North Korean restaurants. Despite the fact that North Koreans are mostly starving to death these days, their traditional cuisine is delicious - buckwheat noodles in a spicy sauce - so spicy in fact that you need to add ice to cool it down!
My story was covered by most of the major newspapers, even making it to the front page a few times.. gave people a break from the usual apocalyptic news about North Korea I guess...
I visited the really cool Momot Paper Toy Company.
I taught a jam-making class at SK Foundation, a cookery school for disadvantaged young people.
And another class at one of the best cook-schools in the country, for local bakers,pâtissiers and restauranteurs - a big part of our strategy for launching SuperJam in Asia is to supply bakeries - the market for bread is growing, in countries that traditionally eat rice for breakfast..
I gave a lecture about packaging design at Sookmyung women's university - one of the top design schools in Korea.
Street food market..
The 2nd Edition of my book in Korean - The SuperJam Story.
I can't wait to go back in a few month's time!
The First SuperJam Tea Parties in Australia!
I'm delighted to say that the first few SuperJam Tea Parties in Australia have been a huge success!
Hosted in partnership with Scones for Good and Kids Giving Back, the tea parties involved groups of young people to bake the scones, serve the tea and chat to the elderly guests. The parties included a large number of elderly people from around Sydney and were a huge amount of fun.
You can see all of the pictures from the recent parties here.
SuperJam Launches in Finland!
I was recently invited to Helsinki and Porvoo in Finland, for the launch of SuperJam in the very beautiful Anton&Anton stores.
As well as sharing my story with students at some of the local universities, we had a tea party in one of their Helsinki stores. SuperJam has been flying off the shelves and we're now getting ready to launch a Finnish language version of our website, as well as having our first SuperJam Tea Party for the elderly in Helsinki.
I'll be back over visiting in the New Year and look forward to seeing SuperJam on the shelves of even more stores in Finland!
Talking about SuperJam on Sunrise!
As part of SuperJam's arrival in Australia, I was very kindly invited to share my story with the viewers of Sunrise - Australia's No. 1 TV show.
David Koch ('Koshie') was super supportive of my story - he is all about entrepreneurship and new businesses - and he said that my book, SuperBusiness should be your 'Bible' if you're trying to get your idea off the ground.
You can see the whole interview here.
SuperJam's Launch in Australia!
This week has been amazing - I've come over to Sydney to launch SuperJam Down Under!
We're working with a local company called Honest to Goodness to get the products out there and have already signed up a whole bunch of stores across the country to stock the range.
We're exhibiting at the Fine Foods Sydney Expo and i'll also be sharing my story on the TV and radio all week...
SuperJam's Biggest Ever Tea Party
Yesterday, as part of the Capital Age Festival, on the Southbank in London, SuperJam hosted the biggest ever SuperJam Tea Party.
We served cream teas to thousands of the elderly people who had
traveled from all over the city to see the live bands, poets, theater
groups and all kinds of other performances.
See all the pictures here.
We were very kindly supported by a group of volunteers from local Nat
West branches, a donation of thousands of tea bags from the great tea
company Make Mine A Builders and clotted cream from Rodda's.
We've got lots more tea parties happening all over the country throughout the Summer so check out our Facebook page here for more details.
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