Commentary

Kraft Gets Grandma to Upload Her Videos

Kraft is breaking down the conventional wisdom about demographics and user-generated video. In a successful promotion for Philadelphia Cream Cheese, the company succeeded in getting over 5,000 women mostly age 35 and older to upload videos of themselves preparing their favorite recipes. It was all part of a "Real Women of Philadelphia" project done with Digitas. The brand solicited home recipes involving Philly Cream Cheese as a way to promote its use beyond the bagel. Yes, even grandma will upload videos if the appeal is on target.

According to Digitas VP and Group Creative Media Director Christine Beardsell in an interview at Beet.tv, the effort demonstrates some of the keys to success in online UGC campaigns.

Rather than just asking women to send in videos of themselves as part of some sweepstakes contest, they gave the project an important leader and role model in Food Network celebrity Paula Deen. The social media tools helped turn the project into a real community effort where people could share their videos with friends and recruit more participants. And there was a very selective distribution effort. Beardsell says that they targeted locations where women were already engaged in the kind of activity they wanted, sharing recipes and uploading video. So they found foodie sites like Good Bites and at the same time bought media at Paula Deen's biggest repository of fans, Food Network.

And rather than just ending the contest with a series of winners, Kraft has devised a live event where a set of finalists will help create a live cookbook together. Paula Deen, who provides the narrative voice to the site, is now inviting reader to send in videos of themselves discussing the recipes they have tried. "It is more than just about cooking," Beardsell says. And of course that is the real point here. Making, sharing and discussing videos of oneself cooking in the kitchen is less about cooking and recipes than it is about identity. What does the recipe the video the process say about the person involved. This is something that brands like Kraft and Betty Crocker have known for decades and executed in their many recipe contests and live bake-offs. Social media is always about how it helps a user project and shape their identity for others to consume. Think first about what you can do for the user rather than what the user can do for you. Kraft's grandma army of video uploaders aren't embracing new media so much as they are reminding all of these youngsters of social marketing that they didn't really invent much that wasn't there all along.

10 comments about "Kraft Gets Grandma to Upload Her Videos".
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  1. Tiffany Hogan from Ximedica, June 15, 2010 at 3:28 p.m.

    I get the point, but I am quite insulted that women over 35 are being referred to, collectively, as "grandmas." Please - many, many of us - especially those of us who might be reading your article - didn't become mothers until we were older than 35. As a reader, its hard to get past that point and actually read your article. Talk about bad messaging.

  2. Caroline Waxler from self, June 15, 2010 at 4 p.m.

    Hang on Tiffany, I need to grab my bifocals and get my grandbabies off my lap so I can respond to this.

  3. Jane Flemming, June 15, 2010 at 4:16 p.m.

    I couldn't agree more. Once I read that you were referring to women 35 or older as grandmothers, I was done.

  4. Mary Spio from Next Galaxy, June 15, 2010 at 4:16 p.m.

    I agree Tiffany referring to women 35+ as a grandma army of video uploaders is a misnomer, ridiculous and unnecessary.

    Video is a great way to reach audiences, although there are more impactful ways to reach millions in the target audience with video than this competition. Starting with the needs of the target customer in mind is the strength of Video Search Optimization (VSEO) which consistently delivers results, because people actually find your video when they are searching for your products and services.

    I’ve posted some of our case studies on leveraging online video and social media to www.gen2media.com, sorry we don’t have any of grandma armies video uploaders, lots of other fun stuff though ?

  5. Caroline Palmer from LP & G, June 15, 2010 at 5:37 p.m.

    sorry, i am over 35 and NOT a grandma. very poor choice of words

  6. Carin Galletta Oliver from Angelsmith, June 15, 2010 at 6:17 p.m.

    Clever headline. Unfortunately the article didn't live up to its promise. I'm not sure where you live, but 35 is a tad on the young side for an affluent computer savvy videographer "grandma".

    You may want to familiarize yourself with demographic terms such as Baby Boomers, Gen X, Y and Millennials and reconsider where your "grandma" title fits in.

  7. Liz Barrett from Ketchum, June 15, 2010 at 6:42 p.m.

    If over 35=grandma, I'm a monkey's uncle! Come on! Positions the article inaccurately.

  8. Paula Lynn from Who Else Unlimited, June 15, 2010 at 6:49 p.m.

    I will give you the opportunity to do a do-over, Steve, unless you feel your daughter should have had a couple of kids by now. Yes, take it personally. So let's see that study for the over 60 set. Kraft has a lot of work to do to claim this is a successful promotion. BTW, 5000 is successful ? That's 99 cents times 2 (cream cheese promo price) 8 oz. packages = $1000. Yes, very successful, don't you think grandpa ?

  9. Steve Smith from Mediapost, June 15, 2010 at 8:04 p.m.

    Okay, no offense intended. The headline actually comes from Beardsell's own characterization in the video interview of "A lot of grandma's" uploading videos. She nor I were characterizing the entire demo they measured as "grandma" aged, but she did single out the surprising number of grandmas who did.

  10. Eric Steckel from Turnpike Digital, June 16, 2010 at 3 p.m.

    I think that the misleading headline is clouding the fact that it's an effective campaign that effectively uses User Generated Video, Social Media, Paid Media and Celebrity Endorsement. It got great traction and is evolving as folks actually buy into the campaign. Very well done.

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