Grilled Cheese lovers...now you can profess your love!!

[just jess]

Kraft Cheese's new campaign "Have a Happy Sandwich" is holding a contest that starts October 15th, where you can submit video clips via their myspace page with videos that profess your love for the Grilled Cheese sandwich.

Wheres Jen? i think she should totally do this :chuckle

The winner gets $50,000 and the chance of their video being a commercial


http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/01/business/media/01adcol.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

[antknee]

Where Do I Sign Up.

[just jess]

click on the link...the myspace link is within the article...but its still not finalized

we should all ban together and make a spot :keke

[antknee]

link is blocked at my job. :(

[just jess]

weird..its the ny times :hmmm lol

[just jess]

The Pursuit of Happiness in a Grilled Cheese Sandwich

By STUART ELLIOTT
Published: October 1, 2007
KRAFT FOODS, hoping to revive a flagging brand, is turning to an agency that specializes in offbeat ideas to try to transform a prosaic product from humble to heroic.


Kraft Singles advertisements created by the New York office of Nitro.

Kraft is suffering from lagging growth as consumers switch to cheaper store brands, costlier gourmet-style products or more innovative offerings from competitors like ConAgra, Hormel and Procter & Gamble. To help reverse its falling fortunes, Irene B. Rosenfeld, the chief executive of Kraft Foods, is increasing the company’s huge marketing budget — estimated at $1.4 billion a year — by $300 million to $400 million.

The primary goal of the spending increase is to persuade consumers that Kraft’s venerable products can meet their changing needs. A case in point is Kraft Singles sliced cheese; Kraft will devote a campaign that begins today to the glorification of the grilled cheese sandwich.

The television, online, print and retail campaign carries the upbeat theme “Have a happy sandwich.”

“In marketing-speak, we call it the ‘end dish,’ as in what’s the dish the product ends up in,” said Jane Hilk, vice president for marketing at the cheese and dairy business unit at Kraft in Glenview, Ill.

“If we can grow grilled cheese, and get grilled cheese back onto the list of quick menu options, we can grow our Kraft Singles business,” she added.

In campaigns from the longtime previous agency for Kraft Singles — the Chicago office of JWT, part of the WPP Group — the brand was peddled on “functional benefits,” Ms. Hilk said, like calcium content.

“But we’d hit that point where consumers say: ‘I know that. What else?’ ” she said, adding: “The conversation needs to happen on an emotional level because that’s where the power of a brand comes in. We found ourselves in need of strategy change and creative change.”

Enter a new agency, Nitro, a boutique becoming known for landing assignments — previously handled by far larger agencies — from giant marketers like Mars and Unilever. Nitro executives play up the agency’s status as a smaller, independent shop to suggest they are more nimble than their counterparts.

“We’re fortunate that in our experience so far we’ve had brave clients who understand the opportunity for engaging consumers in ways that are outside the traditional,” said Kathy Delaney, who recently joined Nitro as global executive creative director, based in the New York office.

“We’re not promising happiness; no brand can,” Ms. Delaney said. “What we’re promising is that for the three or four minutes you’re having a Kraft grilled cheese sandwich, you’re happy.”

The approach is “unconventional,” Ms. Delaney acknowledged, because “it is not about selling a cheese slice.”

But if Kraft could “get people to make just one more grilled cheese sandwich a year,” she added, sales of Kraft Singles would improve.

The campaign’s centerpiece is a contest on MySpace (myspace.com/haveahappysandwich), which begins on Oct. 15. Computer users will be asked to create video clips that celebrate grilled cheese; the winner gets $50,000 and a chance to have his or her video produced as a commercial.

Teaming up with MySpace, part of the News Corporation, represents a gamble for a staid, mainstream marketer like Kraft.

“I’m not going to deny it; it’s a risk,” Ms. Hilk said. “It’s not the way we typically manage brands.”

“But social networking is part of life for people who enjoy Kraft products,” she added. “We’ve got to get where the consumers are.”

In another departure, Nitro plans to create many television commercials for the “happy sandwich” campaign, rather than the two or three a year that Kraft typically orders for each brand.

The campaign is starting with five spots, Ms. Delaney said, and more are planned for 2008.

The commercials are also different from usual Kraft fare in that they are short, 10 or 15 seconds long rather than 30; feature animation rather than actors; and take a humorous, even whimsical tack rather than a serious or self-important tone.

For instance, in one commercial, a battle between a pig and a fire-breathing dragon ends when the pig holds up a cheese sandwich as a shield; they share the resulting grilled treat — presumably because the dragon forgot to order ham and cheese.

In a second spot, Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf picnic on a sandwich as Frank Sinatra sings on the soundtrack “We may never pass this way again.”

In a third commercial, a grilled cheese sandwich appears dressed as a superhero, a bunny, an angel and Santa Claus. The five spots were produced by two animation companies, Curious Pictures in New York and Duck Studios in Los Angeles.

Sales for Kraft Singles, one of Kraft’s largest brands, totaled more than $600 million last year. Kraft spends about $40 million a year to advertise the brand.

The creative assignment for Kraft Singles is the first that Kraft has awarded to Nitro. The decision was made in June as part of a shake-up of the Kraft agency roster that also involved familiar brands like Grey Poupon mustard, Oscar Mayer meats and Ritz crackers.

Last year, Kraft hired another smaller, independent agency, McGarry Bowen in New York, to create campaigns for the salad dressings, mayonnaise and barbecue sauces sold under the Kraft name.

[antknee]

i'm seriously submitting my sandwich.

[a n t]

people still use that shit cheese? my grilled cheese gets nothing less than land o' lakes.

maybe I'll pretend I love kraft for the 50k though, lol.

[antknee]

that cheese is good for melting since its like 90% oil.

[Lance Burkhart]

that myspace page is pretty dope!!! good to see kraft got it finished before the big PR announcement in the NY times!!

[Lance Burkhart]

my commercial is gonna be a college kid ripping off a piece from his grilled cheese, put it on a spoon, cook it like heroin and then loading into a syringe and mainlining it...."grilled cheese...if it were any more addicting, it'd be illegal"

[just jess]

that myspace page is pretty dope!!! good to see kraft got it finished before the big PR announcement in the NY times!!

right? for a sec i was like hmmm Kraft is a 17 yr old male?? lol

[just jess]

my commercial is gonna be a college kid ripping off a piece from his grilled cheese, put it on a spoon, cook it like heroin and then loading into a syringe and mainlining it...."grilled cheese...if it were any more addicting, it'd be illegal"

then he would fall over and OD...good idea :agree

[Lance Burkhart]

then he would fall over and OD...good idea :agree

and cheesey foam would shoot out of his mouth

[just jess]

like cheeze whiz!!

no wait...thats an entire brand all together..

scratch the whiz

[Lance Burkhart]

kraft makes cheez whiz

[just jess]

well then, we're in business

[Lance Burkhart]

how long can the video be? i have a brilliant idea!

[just jess]

i assume if you want it to be a commercial, its got to be about 30 seconds long give or take

[Lance Burkhart]

i wish i knew something about video production, id win that 50k so easy! this idea is MONEY!!!

[just jess]

PM me it (i promise i wont steal your cheesey idea...:chuckle)

[Gspot555]

We can spell it Kraft Cheezzz

[antknee]

how long can the video be? i have a brilliant idea!

I need to find this costume. I have a brilliant idea as well. :rubhands

http://jschumacher.typepad.com/joe/images/fresh_d_03.jpg

[Lance Burkhart]

PM me it (i promise i wont steal your cheesey idea...:chuckle)

i dont believe u....i just remembered my sister is good at this shit....keep it in the fam!

[nycxtcgirl69]

omg that is a really good contest.