• by Karlene Lukovitz  @KLmarketdaily, March 11, 2010

Kraft Foods' Triscuit crackers brand is partnering with nonprofit Urban Farming to create 50 community-based home farms during 2010.

The brand's new home farming initiatives also include offering free basil and dill herb seed cards on four million boxes of its original and reduced-fat varieties, and a Web site (triscuit.com/homefarming) featuring tips on starting home gardens or volunteering at a local Urban Farming garden.

The first garden, in Los Angeles, was officially opened with a ceremony on March 11. The other 49 garden locations are scattered throughout the country, and include Dallas, Detroit, Philadelphia, Phoenix and Tampa, Fla. The farms will be maintained by local residents and community groups on a volunteer basis.

The Web site includes a tool that advises consumers which vegetables and herbs are best to plant (and planting dates) based on their regions/ZIP codes and the amount of sunny space available (ranging from a single pot on a balcony to two 4-foot by 8-foot gardens). Another tool enables users to find nearby community farms, and add their own home farms to a map. Forums and sharing tools are prominently displayed.

The site also features step-by-step advice for creating and maintaining a home garden from HGTV "Gardening by the Yard" host Paul James, who will make appearances at the openings of the sponsored community gardens.

The home farming theme meshes with Triscuit's "Weave Some Wonder" marketing campaign, which launched last year and marked the brand's return to TV advertising after five years. The campaign (its latest TV ad debuted on March 9) emphasizes the crackers' "simple, authentic goodness" and quality ingredients, such as the "soft white winter wheat" from North American farms that gives the product its crunch and "22 grams of delicious whole grain goodness per serving."

Helping people discover "the simple joy of growing and sharing their own herbs and vegetables" is another way of communicating that Triscuit fits into people's desire to return to the "basic, simple things that bring value to our lives," says Jim Low, director of marketing for wheat crackers at Kraft, including Triscuit.

In a recent survey, the brand found that nearly two-thirds of Americans are interested in growing food in a backyard garden, and that three out of four prefer to eat foods with "a few, simple ingredients." However, 56% of Americans who did not grow food last year cited lack of time and/or space as the main obstacles.

The home farming initiatives are being supported by PR, print ads, banner ads on gardening, women's general interest and other sites; messaging on the product boxes (which also drives consumers to the microsite), some outreach to blogs and tweeting through the Kraft Foods Twitter presence; and the community forums and sharing tools on the microsite. Rather than focus on promotion via Triscuit's Facebook page, the brand decided to make it easy for users to share the home farming movement site's existence and usefulness through their own social media pages or channels, explains Low.

Last year, Triscuit also became a corporate supporter of the National FFA Organization, which encourages youth leadership through agricultural education. Triscuit is helping to fund programs/awards for students who develop sustainable farming methods.

Euro RSCG handles the brand's TV and online advertising, Momentum handles events and consumer promotions, and Edelman handles PR.