PRODUCT LAUNCHES & BRAND EVENTS | B2B PRODUCT SAMPLING
El Bawady: Nationwide Molasses Sampling Activation
10,000 custom mini feteer meshaltet bites developed and produced for a multi-location consumer activation, turning a familiar Egyptian pairing into a practical one-person sampling format.
- PERIOD: DATE TBC
- CLIENT: EL BAWADY
- CAMPAIGN: NATIONWIDE
- SCALE: 10,000 BITES
- LORIENTAL ROLE: B2B PRODUCT DEV.
The sampling problem
In Feb 2022, El Bawady commissioned LOriental for a nationwide consumer activation built around one of the brand’s core products. The job was not to cater an event. It was to create a food format that could help shoppers understand the product quickly, enjoyably and while moving through a mall.
The brief centred on molasses. In Egyptian food culture, molasses is familiar alongside feteer meshaltet, but the product still needed to be translated into a format that shoppers could taste quickly while moving through a mall. A straight spoonful would have sampled the product, but not the eating occasion people naturally associate with it.
Turning a familiar ritual into one bite
LOriental’s answer was to miniaturize one of the most familiar Egyptian pairings: feteer meshaltet with molasses. Instead of serving a full traditional portion, the concept became a bite-sized piece of feteer, individually wrapped for distribution and paired with a small tasting cup of El Bawady molasses.
That choice made the product easier to understand in context. The feteer acted as the carrier; El Bawady molasses remained the reason for the tasting. The idea was familiar enough to feel intuitive, but compact enough to work as a fast consumer sample.
Designed for FMCG brand activation
The operating model was closer to product development and production than event hospitality. There was no seated meal, buffet or guest-service sequence. The format had to be manufactured, wrapped and distributed repeatedly across multiple major malls nationwide over several days.
That changed the design criteria. Each unit needed to be easy to handle, quick to consume and simple to reproduce at volume. The wrapping, portion size and tasting format all had to support mall distribution without losing the cultural idea that made the sample meaningful.
10,000 custom-produced pieces
Across the campaign, LOriental custom-designed and produced 10,000 mini feteer meshaltet bites. Identity Magazine later documented the same 10,000-piece commission in its profile of LOriental, describing El Bawady’s nationwide activation and the custom feteer bites created to complement the brand’s molasses.
The scale mattered because a sampling idea only works commercially if it survives repetition. Ten thousand units had to communicate the same product experience from the first distribution point to the last, even though the activation moved across locations.
Cultural familiarity as brand translation
The strongest part of the assignment was the translation from brand objective to physical product. The starting question was simple: how do you make molasses sampling feel like a real eating occasion rather than an isolated spoonful?
The solution used culinary familiarity instead of novelty for its own sake. A traditional Egyptian food was reduced to a one-person format, paired with the product being demonstrated and prepared for high-volume distribution. The result was a branded sampling experience that people could understand in a single bite.
What the assignment demonstrates
The El Bawady activation shows a side of LOriental that sits outside conventional catering: B2B food product development, culturally informed brand translation and repeatable production at commercial scale.
It also shows why the distinction matters. The food was designed around the sampling problem, the consumer context and the brand’s product story. The output was not a menu for an event; it was 10,000 consistent consumer interactions built from one clear culinary idea.
