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Kraft spices up social, video efforts with mobile advertising

Kraft is continuing to prove that mobile plays an important role in how consumers interact with social and video with a new campaign that promotes its line of Zesty Italian salad dressings.

The initiative centers around Kraft?s ?Let?s Get Zesty? campaign, which uses digital as a core touchpoint for consumers. Kraft has been building up its mobile initiatives recently, particularly with advertising.

"One pillar of the communication strategy was social sharing ? we wanted consumers to have fun with the campaign and share with their friends and enabled that via recipes and zesty grams," said Karmen Conrad, senior brand manager for Kraft Dressings, Northfield, IL.

"The campaign is aimed at consumers who like to be creative in the kitchen," she said.

"The goal is to engage consumers through fun, flirtatious and playful creative with Zesty Guy and get them thinking about salads and cooking with Kraft Dressing."

Kargo is powering the campaign. 

Mobile, social engagement
Kraft has created a microsite for the campaign at http://www.getmezesty.com.

To promote the microsite, Kraft is running mobile video advertisements within the Hulu Plus iPhone app.

Via the site, consumers can create ?Zestygrams,? which are personalized greeting cards that are created from a Facebook application that is optimized for mobile devices.

Consumers can choose from six different scenes that feature the campaign?s spokesman ? actor Anderson Davis.

From there, consumers are encouraged to sync the site with their Facebook account to personalize the greeting card.

Consumers can pick a friend or family member from Facebook to send the message to via a drop-down menu. Messages can also be personalized with three pieces of additional information from drop-down menus.

Additionally, consumers can watch three commercials via the site, which are each 30-seconds long.

All of the site?s content can be shared via email, Pinterest, Facebook and Twitter.

Social is inherently mobile and therefore Kraft is smart to not only make the Facebook app optimized for mobile devices but also use mobile advertising to promote the campaign.

Mobile past
Kraft has consistently been ramping up its mobile initiatives in the past year.

Most recently, Kraft used mobile advertising for its Macaroni & Cheese brand that was aimed at helping the company build up its Twitter presence (see story).

Additionally, a campaign for Kraft?s Philadelphia line of cream cheeses included mobile videos and banner ads to show consumers recipes that incorporated the products (see story).

?Mobile makes sense for everyone and Kraft's case is not an exception,? said Cezar Kolodziej, CEO/president of Iris Mobile, Chicago.

Mr. Kolodziej is not affiliated with Kraft. He commented based on his expertise on the subject.

?However, using the right touch points and associated tactics can make it or break it for almost every campaign,? he said.

?Let's remember that consumers are using the Hulu application to watch their favorite shows and movies. If this is the case, having in-app video ads that drive the consumer to the mobile Web site and directs them to their Facebook account to personalize a greeting is not a very convenient or clearly-defined way to engage anyone with Kraft.?

Final Take
Lauren Johnson is associate reporter on Mobile Marketer, New York