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.