Ogilvy & Yahoo Team for Hellmann's Branded Entertainment

WPP creative agency Ogilvy teams today with Yahoo Food to launch "In Search of Real Food," a Web-based branded entertainment series that's part of a robust digital advertising campaign for Unilever's Hellmann's Real Mayonnaise.

Yahoo Food has created an "In Search of Real Food" hub, where users can watch the series, upload their own videos and recipes, and comment on celebrity chef Dave Lieberman's accompanying blog.

The 12-episode series follows Lieberman's weekly road trips in search of the people and recipes behind "real food" in America. Each episode is broken into four chapters, three to four minutes each, that viewers can watch as a whole or individually. The chapters include restaurant reviews, man-on-the-street interviews and full recipe demos.

"With short-form Web programming, we have the opportunity to build a unique engagement model with the audience," said Doug Scott, executive director, branded content and entertainment, Ogilvy. "And digital video allows us to syndicate the content through multiple devices, from the computer, to mobile, to iTunes."

The series represents one of many interactive additions to the Hellmann's "Its Time for Real" campaign, an initiative focused on letting health-conscious consumers know that Hellmann's Real Mayonnaise is made with simple, "real" ingredients like eggs, oil and vinegar, and moving it "to the front of the refrigerator."

In-banner video created by Ryan iDirect will appear across the Yahoo content network, with WPP's MindShare handling the media placements.

Offline, new TV spots will feature the Yahoo logo and search box, and print ads and creative on Hellmann's jar tops will reference the series

While retail sales growth will be a key performance metric for the campaign, Ogilvy will also quantify user engagement by tracking video statistics such as unique viewers and length of time spent. Post-campaign research on brand perception of Hellmann's Real Mayonnaise will also factor into the performance analysis.

Next story loading loading..