It’s time to look at the shortlist for Marketer of the Year, which appears in Marketing’s Nov. 19 issue. We’ll be featuring each one online as a lead-up to our January 2013 issue, where you’ll find out which marketer will reign supreme.
From Facebook to a food truck, Kraft delivered the right content to the right audience
In his 2002 book Souvenir of Canada, Douglas Coupland wrote, “For some reason, Canadians and Kraft products have bonded the way Australians have bonded with Vegemite, or the English with Heinz baked beans.”
It’s a bond Kraft has carefully developed since its beginnings as a wholesale cheese business in Chicago in 1903. “Historically, we have always had good consumer understanding and superior products,” says Chris Bell, VP of grocery and beverages at Kraft Canada.
“And those foundations have stood us in good stead for over a hundred years.”
That said, 2012 was a history-making year. In October, Kraft split itself into two businesses: snacks (now Mondelez International) and groceries (Kraft Food Groups). While it’s a “new Kraft” today, the company operated under one umbrella for most of 2012. Its standout marketing e orts, for a host of brands on multiple platforms, landed Kraft on Marketing’s top 10 marketers list.
Kraft has been focusing on ensuring its consumer understanding goes “beyond just how they interact with our products,” says Bell. Whether it’s a female principle grocery shopper or a millennial male, “we understand who they are and how they consume their media. Then we make sure we have really good content that will engage them.”
In the last 12 months, Kraft went to market with attention-getting campaigns for Cadbury Caramilk, Jello and Maynards . Dentyne gum, Triscuit crackers, Thinsations cookies and Tassimo brands were all part of The Bachelor Canada. In January, Kraft introduced peel and re-seal packs and new flavours for its Cracker Barrel and P’tit Québec natural flflflfl cheese brands.This summer , it extended its strategic reach into multicultural markets with the “Create-and-Win Chinese Recipe Contest” using famed chef Susur Lee to add a little star power, and also set off in a 27-foot branded truck for a five-city tour to support its peanut butter label.
When it came time to launch its new water flavouring brand. Mio, Kraft wanted to make a big splash (er, squirt) . In May, it launched an off-beat 30-second TV spot from Taxi 2 that had just enough quirkiness to resonate with the target audience: male millennials. “The creative idea was around how Mio has the opportunity to really change the way people think about their beverages,” says Bell.
The ad opens with two o ce co-workers talking about Mio (“mine” in Italian). As they do so, they continually change outfi ts and eventually morph into completely di erent people. There’s also a lot going on in the background (more than 100 changes, says Bell), so viewers can find something new every time they watch it. For instance, the headgear on the person in the nearest cubicle changes throughout the spot, as does the clock on the wall.
An online video by The Dude Perfect crew called “Trick Squirts” showed other ways of adding Mio to water, like blowing it up. The Dude Perfect video has more than 200,000 views on YouTube
A campaign for Kraft Dinner that launched in January also showed a fun side to reach younger audiences. Also created by Taxi 2, the KD Battle Zone on Facebook consisted of fve challenges. A TV spot introduced the first challenge, called “KD Bombing,” and invited viewers to upload “photo bombs” featuring KD . Other battles included putting a caption on funny pictures involving KD, and a recipe
battle.
“We found there was a lust for people to talk about Kraft Dinner and when people eat it, they take photos and they Instagram it and they brag about it,” says Lance Martin, executive creative director at Taxi 2. “We’ve just tried to tap into that, giving them a forum to do the stu they were already doing… We made that into content and let their competitive nature take over.”
Another highlight this year was Tassimo’s partnerships with Second Cup and Tim Hortons, allowing owners of the single-serve beverage system to make their favourite coffee shop beverages at home. Each drink comes in Tassimo’s proprietary T Disc packaging, which contains a measured amount of co ffee, tea, chocolate syrup or concentrated milk product and is read by a bar code. The technology means the drinks are “brewed exactly the way they do it in-store,” says Bell.
The Tim Hortons launch is being supported during the 2012 holiday season with both Tassimo and Tim Hortons TV advertising. A national contest, “Tassimo Brings ‘Tims’ Home for the Holidays,” was scheduled for November, inviting customers to enter a heart warming story about the beloved ‘Tim’ in their lives. In addition, 400,000 Tim Hortons Tassimo T Discs will be sampled in o ce buildings and malls nationwide.
While 2012 is now in the history books as the year Kraft was re-made, it was no doubt a winning year for the Canadian marketing team. “We’re thrilled with 2012 and what’s behind us,” says Bell, “and we’re massively excited about 2013.”
