For a brand’s 70th birthday, the easiest thing to do is open the archives. Maestro instead opened kitchen drawers across Slovenia, the ones where old notebooks, handwritten recipes, added measurements and family versions of dishes that have been prepared almost from memory for years are kept.
Agencija 101 started from the idea that an anniversary does not have to speak only about what lies behind a brand. It can leave something new behind. They invited people to submit their recipes and tried to find what hundreds of personal versions had in common. Artificial intelligence helped read and process the collected material, while chef Bruno Šulman took over the final part of the process. The result? The first Spice Blend for Slovenian Dishes, and Gold in the Food category at this year’s BalCannes.
The more interesting part of the story, however, is not only the product that ended up on the shelf, but the way it was created. How do you extract a shared taste from recipes that have belonged to someone for a lifetime without erasing their differences? How do you give technology enough work to make it useful, but not so much that it starts making decisions instead of people? And how do you present a product created as something new so that it does not feel like something that has just been invented, but rather like something that, in a way, had already been present in those kitchens?
And who better to tell us about those decisions than the team behind the project?
When you were tasked with marking Maestro’s 70th anniversary, why did you propose creating an entirely new product instead of a retrospective campaign?
Maestro would not be celebrating such a milestone without its loyal consumers. So, for the anniversary, we wanted to pay tribute to the people who have been part of the brand’s long and successful story and, in a way, make them part of the campaign itself.
The idea of creating a new product, the first-ever Spice Blend for Slovenian Dishes made perfect sense. After all, who better to answer the question “What makes a taste distinctly Slovenian?” than the people of Slovenia themselves?
And perhaps the best part is that even now, after the anniversary year has come to an end, they can still enjoy a product they helped create.
How did you involve the entire country in creating the product while preserving the sense that every recipe carries a personal and family story?
We knew that choosing the ingredients for a Slovenian spice blend would not be easy, as there had never been a clear answer to what actually makes up the “Slovenian taste”. It was therefore important to listen to people themselves, because they are the ones who would ultimately use the blend to enrich Slovenian dishes made from recipes passed down from generation to generation.
These recipes live in well-worn, much-loved notebooks, turned to hundreds of times, tucked away in kitchens all across Slovenia. So that is exactly where we decided to look.
What we found was that, of course, every recipe has its own personal twist. But beneath those individual stories, very similar ingredients and spices kept appearing again and again.
AI read the recipes, while the chef determined the final proportions. What did Agencija 101 need to keep under its control so that all those contributions could become one clear idea?
To make collecting and processing the recipe data more efficient, we didn’t review the recipes manually, artificial intelligence did that for us. At Agencija 101, we continuously monitored the database of collected recipes so that we could ultimately assess the accuracy of the analysis and provide chef Bruno Šulman with verified data. We equipped him with a clear brief and all the relevant information he needed. This gave him the freedom to use his professional expertise and turn all those insights into the final product.
How did you communicate to the public a product that is both a new Maestro innovation and something that should feel like a natural part of Slovenian cuisine?
We started communicating long before the new product was launched, by involving people in the search for the true Slovenian taste. Looking back, this played an important role in the success of the first Spice Blend for Slovenian Dishes.
By listening to consumers and inviting them to take part in creating the final product, we gave them a sense of ownership, and, as a result, they were excited to try it when it launched.
This allowed Maestro to get even closer to its loyal consumers while, at the same time, reaching a much broader audience through an innovative approach.
If you invited Slovenia to create something together with Maestro again today, what question would you like to ask?
Maestro’s kitchen is never at rest. We are already cooking up new ideas for fresh products that will further expand our diverse range. And who knows, perhaps one of them will once again be created together with consumers.
