Promo - March 2008 - (Page 13)

The Players Amy Johannes RETAIL Spreads Easily Kraft taps plane sampling, viral push for low-fat cream cheese Philadelphia Cream Cheese is 128 years old. And that’s a problem. Yes, people are used to the venerable brand. But they may not be interested in a variation with 1/3 less fat. How do you reach them? Kraft Foods decided that only way was to get new product right into consumers’ mouths. And that meant airport sampling. JetBlue Airways passengers on flights from Chicago, Pittsburgh, Boston, New York, Washington, D.C., Oakland, Long Beach, CA, and Fort Lauderdale received branded breakfast packages last month containing the cream cheese sample and a bagel. As part of the month-long “Breakfast from Heaven” promotion, brand managers Adam Butler and Tyler Williamson boarded Jet Blue planes, often dressed in white tuxedos. The duo filmed passengers’ thoughts about Brand ambassadors dressed as angels distributed breakfast the samples, brand and cream cheese in general. packs to JetBlue passengers M2Launch handled the sampling. The footage was last month to kickoff Kraft’s packaged into videos for a blog and online sites. sampling campaign. In all, 500,000 travelers received a The blog, www.AdamandTyler.com, provides free breakfast. clips of the 30-something men talking seriously about cream cheese and getting people’s reactions “We want to come across as being to the less-fat alternative. The site also chronicles the duo’s genuine,” Williamson says. “If people say something negative, weeklong journey around the country sampling the brand, we need to show that.” and the humorous methods they use to do it. Kraft started seeding its campaign last fall on blogs to To get the word out, Kraft reached out to blogger sites with pump up the brand. In December, it kicked off the campaign the help of DEI Worldwide, a word-of-mouth agency. with a taste challenge. People who try the lower-fat cream Kraft also created YouTube and Myspace pages at www. cheese and don’t like it can request a coupon by mail for the youtube.com/user/AdamNTyler and www.myspace.com/ regular blend through July 15. adamandtyler. On the sites, visitors can watch videos about TV spots, print ads and an ongoing sweepstakes supported the the campaign’s inception and view consumer testimonials. product launch in January. Under the promotion, Kraft is giving The effort marks Kraft’s first foray into viral marketing away bagels and cream cheese to 100 winners each day at www. in the soft cheese category. The last major product launch for creamcheese.com through March 20. Visitors to the site can also Philadelphia was in September 2006 with its Ready-To-Eat download a new widget for recipes and party-planning tips. Cheesecake Filling. “Marketing is all about going to where the people are,” “We wanted to give Philadelphia Cream Cheese a new Butler says. “Part of it is about building a community. [For P personality and modernize the brand,” Butler says. “There Kraft], that will be a focus for the long term.” l was kind of a challenge to people in marketing to push the limits as much as possible to start talking to people in a new way.” W For more articles on retail marketing go to For an age-old brand expanding its product line, tradiwww.promomagazine.com/retail tional marketing alone doesn’t cut it. Newsletter RSS Conference “We couldn’t just rely on TV commercials and print ads,” Web Webinar Podcast Williamson says. Is it working? In the first nine days, the blog had more than 16,000 visits. Overall, the response was positive, Butler says. But not all consumers are won over by the ploy. One blogger wrote, “As brand managers for this product, it’s all so overly intentional and schticky. You are sales people with an obvious point of view. This blog simply aims to distract from that fact by implying both of you can actually say anything other than ‘Kraft/Philadelphia cream cheese is great.’ A for effort, F for execution. The only thing cheesy around here is this blog!” Promo / WWW.PROMOMAGAZINE.COM / March 2008 13 http://www.youtube.com/user/AdamNTyler http://www.youtube.com/user/AdamNTyler http://www.myspace.com/adamandtyler http://www.myspace.com/adamandtyler http://www.creamcheese.com http://www.creamcheese.com http://www.promomagazine.com/retail http://www.promomagazine.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Promo - March 2008

Promo - March 2008 Editor's Note Girls' Club New Eco Regs? They're Not Going Anywhere Spreads Easily RFID Ramp-Up From Backyard to Broadcast Commentary VROOOM! Stuff We Can't Do Here Yet Q&A: Measuring Up Free Ink The Agency Center Resource Center Promotions 2.0 Index of Advertisers

Promo - March 2008

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