Recently in Food Category

Tweeters Star In Wheat Thins TV Ads
by Karlene Lukovitz, Monday July 26, 2010

Kraft Foods/Nabisco Wheat Thins will take social media marketing integration to a new level this week, when it debuts the first of at least two 30-second national TV commercials featuring consumers who have tweeted positively about the brand.

The TV spots employ two of three videos already posted on Wheat Thins' "The Crunch is Calling" YouTube channel and in a tab on its Facebook page, which have collectively drawn more than 623,000 views since being posted just over three weeks ago.

The videos show a team of brand representatives, in a van prominently displaying Wheat Thins' "The Crunch Is Calling" theme, tracking down and surprising tweeters who have indicated their attachment to the crackers. Each tweeter is presented with a Wheat Thins gift that ties into the content of his/her tweet.

Each video starts with a close-up of a screenshot showing an actual brand-related tweet (the tweeter's "handle" is visible), with the mobile team discussing the tweet's content as they arrive to have a close encounter with a fan.

The first video to be aired as a TV spot (for two weeks, starting July 26) shows a tweet from Tabitha, a young woman who had lamented: "AAAHHHH ... I'm outta Wheat Thins ... Mi [sic] life is officially over!" As she opens her front door to the Crunch team and verifies that she indeed tweeted that message, an entire pallet of Wheat Thins boxes is being deposited in her driveway -- the brand's gift to ensure that she has plenty on hand for the foreseeable future. As the team zooms away, the stunned but smiling fan gives them the thumbs-up as she stands beside the pallet, with a dumbfounded neighbor looking on.

The second video/TV ad captures the team presenting a set of custom-made "Crunch is Calling" headphones to Timmy (on a restaurant deck among friends/onlookers), who had tweeted: "Does anyone else have to turn up the volume when they eat Wheat Thins? Someone needs to invent crunch-proof headphones." After testing the headphones (a brand rep crunches a Wheat Thin, amplifying it through a megaphone), Timmy is left eating a cracker as he wonders aloud: "Don't I have to sign anything?" This ad will begin airing Aug. 30.

A third video -- which may or may not be used for a TV ad -- shows the team surprising Dan, who had tweeted that he was using a Wheat Thin to pick his air guitar, with a Wheat Thins-branded guitar case containing ... nothing. Dan demos his cracker-pick air-guitar moves, and also receives a custom Wheat Thins box bearing his photo and tweet.

The brand is being mysterious in responding to social media queries from fans wondering how Wheat Thins located the folks shown in the videos ("The videos are the real deal, but, unfortunately, we can't reveal our intervention secrets!"), but a spokesperson confirms that the subjects were tracked down with the help of their Facebook friends and family members.

Interestingly, to enhance the surprise factor, Wheat Thins chose to video consumers who were selected based on "random" tweets picked up about the brand, rather than approaching Wheat Thins Twitter followers/Facebook fans.

The TV spots will be aired on a variety of network prime-time shows and cable outlets with high viewership among the recently repositioned brand's new core target audience, women and men age 25 to 45, reports Jim Low, director of wheat snack crackers for Kraft Foods.

The videos will also be employed in new online advertising, as pre-rolls for Web-posted episodes of targeted TV shows. Adjacent ad blocks will encourage viewers to click into the brand's Facebook page/Twitter presence.

The social media-driven videos and their use as TV spots and pre-rolls represent a natural next step in the evolution of the brand and its marketing, Low tells Marketing Daily.

The brand's repositioning process began over a year ago, when Wheat Thins used consumer research to identify the cracker's crunch, flavor and texture as its key attractions to a younger and more gender-balanced demographic group.

Last summer, the brand introduced product changes to further enhance its appeal to this group (adding more whole-grain content to many varieties and eliminating high-fructose corn syrup); unveiled a more contemporary package design; and launched its "Crunch is Calling" tagline and an integrated campaign that included crunch-focused TV spots featuring young adults.

Low reports that efforts in this year's first half focused on in-person engagement with the target audience through event sponsorships -- including high-visibility sponsorships during March's NCAA tournament and June's Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival (where Conan O'Brien serendipitously mentioned the brand from stage).

The TV campaign and events helped drive engagement with Wheat Thins' new, app-heavy Facebook fan page (which has drawn nearly 111,000 fans since its launch in December '09), as well as its new Twitter. com/crunchiscalling presence (about 900 followers to date) and its revamped wheatthins.com site.

The tweeter videos/TV spots/pre-rolls are designed to build on that engagement. "The social media conversations about Wheat Thins and viral effect are really underway now, and the enthusiasm for the brand is very clear," says Low, noting that celebrities (including "American Idol"'s Kris Allen and R&B singer Chris Brown) have tweeted about the brand.

"These conversations continue to become increasingly important, and we're actively engaged in them on an ongoing basis" -- taking care to engage as a meaningful participant, rather than come off as promotional or intrusive, Low adds.

To date, all signs point to substantial success in engaging the new target audience via social media and the other "Crunch" marketing efforts, according to Low. Importantly, these younger fans view Wheat Thins as a snack product to be enjoyed on an everyday basis, in contrast to the brand's traditional consumer base of women 45 and older, who viewed it "just as a traditional cracker," he points out.

Escape Pod developed the new videos, and AKQA implemented social media/online elements. Edelman handles the brand's public relations.

For more information visit www.mediapost.com

Denny's Pumps Up Social Media Efforts Amid Troubles
by Karlene Lukovitz, Thursday June 1, 2010

Social media is likely not the #1 priority these days at Denny's, what with searches for both a new CEO and a new CMO now underway and heavy investor pressure to rejuvenate the brand and jump-start its sales.

(On June 8, Denny's announced that chairman/CEO, Nelson Marchioli, who had survived an ouster attempt by an investor group in May, is now being replaced on an interim basis by board chair Debra Smithart-Oglesby. The chain's former CMO, Mark Chmiel, resigned at the end of last year.)

Still, from a marketing standpoint, it's interesting to note that the company is pushing forward with efforts to enhance its social media outreach, even as a new top-level strategic team tackles the job of reassessing the business's fundamentals.

In the last six months, in particular, the chain has been accelerating social media efforts intended to go beyond pushing out basic promotional/coupon offers -- efforts more focused on engaging fans and prospects with one another and with the brand, confirms Alan Miller, co-founder/co-owner of L.A.-based Filter Creative Group, the agency handling Denny's social media programs.

The latest effort, launched on June 8 and running through June 27, is a Father's Day "card maker" application being promoted through the chain's main brand and "Allnighter" Facebook fan pages and Twitter presences, as well as its email database.

Users register and create a card to email or print out for dad, and the card comes with a coupon for a free ice cream float for dad ... well, free with any purchase from the chain's new "$2 $4 $6 $8 Value Menu" or an entrée from its general menu. (The free-with-purchase nature of the offer is perhaps notable, given that disgruntled investors' criticisms have included charges that outright food giveaways, such as Denny's annual Free Grand Slam Breakfast day, have not succeeded in winning new, regular customers.)

As of June 10, more than 7,000 consumers had already created Father's Day cards, according to the chain. This follows a similar card-maker effort for Mother's Day, in which more than 13,000 users created cards in less than a week, reports Miller.

Denny's main brand Facebook page has attracted about 49,000 fans since its launch (along with an associated Twitter presence) in February 2009. But these general-brand Facebook/Twitter presences actually emerged from the success of the launch, nearly a year earlier, of a Facebook page and Twitter account that were created specifically in support of Denny's "Allnighter" initiative -- its effort to attract a young crowd with a hipper environment and special menu featured between 10 a.m. and 5 a.m.

The Allnighter Facebook page (which now has about 72,000 fans) has offered a variety of engagement devices, including mobile apps like virtual dancing video games and Webisodes featuring live-action puppet characters enjoying the Allnighter vibe. Allnighter fans have also been able to access personalized profile pages created by the animated characters, appearing on MySpace, as well as Facebook and Twitter.

Denny's two Facebook fan pages regularly cross-promote engagement and promotional opportunities, and Webisodes/videos, along with Denny's TV spots, are readily available on YouTube.

Earlier this year, Denny's' main Facebook page hosted eight video episodes featuring its popular chicken characters -- a follow-up to the chain's three Super Bowl commercials promoting its Free Grand Slam Breakfast day and Free Grand Slam birthday offer. One of those Bowl spots ("Chicken Warning") showed its chicken characters fleeing town as they were warned about the volume of eggs they'd have to lay to meet the demand for the free breakfast promotion. The video episodes offered humorous updates on the chickens' plight.

Denny's subsequently created "The Chicken Show," a series of monthly Webisodes on a "chickens" tab of the brand's main Facebook site that feature the chickens and their humorous interactions with a clueless fictional character, "Brian the Intern." A current episode, for instance, has the chickens begging for Denny's fans to volunteer as reviewers of the new Value Menu, because "Brian" has fallen gravely short as a reviewer (Allnighter Facebook fans are also being urged to become reviewers).

In April, Denny's also teamed with ESPN on both branded content sponsorship segments within the network's "Wednesday Night Baseball" programming and a weekly, online "Denny's Kruk Report," in which ESPN baseball analyst John Kruk blogs on baseball, food and fans and answers questions submitted by Denny's Facebook fans. Participation in the Kruk Report is heavily promoted on both Denny's Allnighter and overall-brand Facebook pages.

What's next? Miller says a July Fourth social media campaign/ promotion is soon to be announced.

Denny's sales declined from $939.4 million in 2007, to $760.5 million in 2008, to $608.1 million in 2009. During fiscal year 2009, its same-store sales decreased 3.7% in company-owned units and 5.2% in franchised units. However, 2009 fiscal net income was $41.6 million, up from $12.7 million in fiscal 2008.

In first-quarter fiscal 2010, net income was $4.6 million, versus $4.3 million in Q1 fiscal 2009.

For more information visit www.mediapost.com

MediaPost News

Marketing Daily News

It's no secret that the restaurant meal has for several years now been the most hotly contested daypart among restaurants. New data from Mintel point to an acceleration of that battle, as restaurants expand their offerings even as consumers cut back on breakfasts out and check sizes. 

Mintel's tracking shows that restaurant chains have added a whopping 460 new breakfast items to their menus just last year -- even more than in either 2008 or 2007.

But at the same time, Mintel's November 2009 survey showed half of U.S. consumers indicating that they spent less on breakfasts last year than in 2008, while just one in 10 indicated they had spent more.

Moreover, nearly half said they don't eat breakfast out during the week (47%) or even on weekends (45%).

Restaurant breakfast and brunch sales fell 3.4% between 2007 and 2009, according to Mintel, and the category is expected to grow only modestly through 2011 before regaining momentum. The researcher forecasts that the breakfast foodservice market will expand by 13% between 2009 and 2014.

"We see an increasingly competitive market for restaurant breakfast, even though sales have declined," sums up Eric Giandelone, director of research, Mintel Foodservice. "Restaurants are refreshing their breakfast menus, but I believe that reduced consumer spending, as well as relatively high unemployment, will limit sales growth over the next year."

How can restaurant operators position themselves to win share when consumer options are expanding while sales are contracting? Giandelone stresses the need to be "keenly aware of what drives people into restaurants for breakfast" -- recognition, for example, that Mintel's research shows people driven mostly by low prices and convenience for weekday breakfasts, but food quality on weekends.

Recognizing consumers' strong desire for the ability to get breakfast fare outside of traditional breakfast hours is also critical, says Giandelone. Indeed, the top item cited by consumers when asked what they would like to see more of in relation to restaurant breakfasts was "all-day breakfast (36% want this on weekdays, 38% on weekends).

Not surprisingly, a desire for more "value" breakfast options is also a top-runner among consumers surveyed (cited by 32%).

Mintel's data confirm the hot-as-a-griddle competitive environment that is already apparent in the growing number of breakfast category moves by major chains.

The long list includes last month's announcement by Burger King that it will add Starbucks Corp.'s Seattle's Best Coffee to all U.S. locations -- a clear response to the success of McDonald's McCafe coffee drinks line. Burger King, McDonald's, Dunkin' Donuts, Wendy's, Denny's, Hardee's, Carl's Jr. and just about every big brand out there have expanded breakfast offerings, many with an emphasis on value and convenience items.

The list of chains offering all-day breakfast menus has also grown, as old-timers like Jack in the Box and IHOP have been joined by Denny's and others.

For more information visit www.mediapost.com