Sweetery NYC started out as a humble baked-goods truck serving whoopee pies, cookies and pastries. Thousands of servings and a Zagat’s rating later, the Manhattan-based food truck has grown into a full-fledged media company. The macaroons and marshmallow creams are the medium, multinationals are the advertisers and New Yorkers are the target audience. Victoria’s Secret, Ogilvy, Lacoste, UBS and others have tapped Sweetery as an outpost to generate excitement and traffic that links attention back to an event or brand campaign.

For CNET Gotham, the digital guide’s first-ever pop up, CBS Interactive (the parent co.) and Openhouse brainstormed the best way to generate local attention. Food trucks won out over street teams, placards and billboards – tastier, more robust medium, right? CBSi then tapped Sweetery to organize two outposts. The first, outside 201 Mulberry St., is Sweetery’s light-blue truck serving free pastries through Saturday (daily from 11a-3p). The second is Korilla BBQ, originally stationed nearby on Lafayette and Spring and now outside Openhouse as well through Friday (same times). “We’re really leveraging the local following here in New York,” says Erin Rich, senior marketing manager at CBSi.

Talk about following! Sweetery has more than 12,000 fans across Facebook and Twitter, works two or three big events monthly and are on the streets daily. But how do founders Grant Di Mille and Samira Mahboudian handle all those locals? Despite coming from a marketing background, Mahboudian says with a smile that she stays out of the kitchen altogether. Di Mille trails his truck in a black all-wheel-drive BMW, is glued to his Blackberry Bold and keeps a 17-inch MacBook Pro on the front seat. Surprisingly, he shuns customizable, cross-platform apps like TweetDeck for Twitter.com. “I’m a dinosaur,” says Di Mille, the only business owner running social media from a Blackberry. And the only one with a six-and-a-half-pound laptop that rarely sees a desk. To stay connected on the Pro, Di Mille uses a Samsung 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot LC11. Next week, though, he’s finally getting an iPhone 4. S for sweet.

Greg Spielberg | November 10 2011
greg@openhousegallery.org

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In August, Openhouse Gallery’s Elizabeth St. Night Market pop-up featured Korilla. Check out the pictures!