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Yoplait Go-Gurt extracts mobile video appeal with Bob Vila series

General Mills? Yoplait Go-Gurt brand crafts a wider audience with a new campaign featuring Bob Vila and several YouTube celebrities concocting creative ways to get the last drop of yogurt out of the product?s signature tube. 

The Go-Gurt Garage campaign includes a mobile-optimized Web site where viewers can follow well-known do-it-yourself expert Bob Vila as he searches for the perfect ?Last Drop Extractor? in a series of video. Viewers are also encouraged to build their own extractors and share them on the site. 

?People are spending more time online and less watching traditional TV, where a majority of our advertising used to live,? said Tsubasa Tanaka, senior marketing manager for Yoplait. ?We built Go-Gurt Garage to entertain and engage our audience where they are.?

Targeting older consumers
Go-Gurt, which has traditionally been positioned as a children?s item, is looking to extend its reach to an older audience. 

The brand settled on Mr. Vila as the fact of its campaign because he is familiar to millennial parents but still engaging for teens, as he has a large social reach and quirky persona. 

Go-Gurt is planning to post two Go-Gurt Garage videos between now and the spring of 2016. 


The first video, which is already up, features YouTube celebrities The Slow Mo Guys, who drop a one-ton weight on 1,000 tubes of Go-Gurt. 

To participate in the fun, consumers have an opportunity to build their own extractor, record it in action and submit their video before Dec. 11. One submission will be chosen to win the Golden Go-Gurt trophy. 

Consumers can also follow along o Facebook, Twitter and Instagram using the hash tag #GoGurtGarage. 

Video viewers
The Go-Gurt Garage campaign is an example of how marketers are beginning to put significant resources behind creating the kind of fun, engaging, quick-hit content that will appeal to mobile users. 

If a brand such as Go-Gurt can successfully entertain consumers on their mobile devices while they have a few minutes during their day, this could help encourage them to try the product the next time they are in a food store. 


The campaign is also the latest in a quickly growing list of innovative, mobile-focused campaigns from consumer packaged goods company General Mills. 

Earlier this fall, General Mills? Trix brand hopped into the smartphone era via a mobile-driven campaign to find a real rabbit to represent the cereal and drive awareness of a new initiative to remove artificial flavors and colors (see story). 

For Halloween, General Mills' Franken Berry, Count Chocula and Boo Berry monster mascots came alive by collaborating with augmented reality application Blippar (see story). 

?Mobile is one of many elements in our Go-Gurt Garage campaign,? Ms. Tanaka said. ?We want to be where people are and we know mobile is a big part of everyone?s life.?

Final Take
Chantal Tode is senior editor on Mobile Marketer, New York