Kraft is hoping the answer is "yes." Two of the company's brand managers have donned blogging caps to try to drum up excitement for a new low fat version of its Philadelphia Cream Cheese. The blog, at AdamandTyler.com, features a pair of brand managers as they develop and execute a marketing strategy for the launch of 1/3 Less Fat Philadelphia Cream Cheese.
The managers, thankfully named Adam Butler and Tyler Williamson, give us blog updates on how the campaign is progressing, as well as several video clips with the pair brainstorming, sometimes by themselves, other times with the help of their boss, Ericka Gettman.
Jackie likes the idea of Kraft being willing to let its brand managers themselves have a go at it. I'm with her here, but do think that Adam and Tyler are trying too hard to be too cool.
But the bottom line is, will this effort help get the word out about Kraft's new cream cheese? Apparently, the guys are going to focus most of their promotional efforts on their "Breakfast From Heaven" idea, where 500,000 Jet Blue customers in February will get free breakfast (including Kraft's new low-fat cream cheese). Adam and Tyler will be on some of the flights, and interviewing and meeting customers as they do. They'll also be spending time at events in certain cities along the way.
And they are already getting some feedback from readers on their efforts, including this comment:
stephanie lewis said:
Know your market. None of these sound like ideas that will actually make people want to go out and buy 1/3 less fat Philly.
You have to ask yourself where are the people that want to watch calories? More than likely they are not sitting on their butts gambling,drinking in a club. Surely you can put something together better than this. Plus I think it is cheesy to advertise on Martha Stewart.com
I also left a comment on another post at around 1:30 PM on a Saturday, and checked back 30 mins later and it had already been posted. Course my comment wasn't answered, and it appears that neither Adam or Tyler have responded to any of the comments.
While I think it's great that Kraft is exploring the blogosphere, I just don't see how this effort will be that effective. From what I can tell, this blog's purpose is to help promote a marketing campaign that's going to be over in a month.
Besides that, Adam and Tyler come across as being a bit too slick. If a major corporation is considering blogging, they have to understand that readers are naturally skeptical of such efforts. Notice the comments left to Jackie's post were a couple of readers pointed out that the brand managers seemed like they were actually actors. Jackie, to her credit, talked to Ericka before posting about the blog, and verified that Adam and Tyler were actual Kraft brand managers. I also did a quick Google search and found that both have a profile on LinkedIn.
Also, there's the fact that the blog has now received several comments, but it doesn't seem that anyone at the blog has replied to any of them. I do think it's a good sign that they added a link to Jackie's Church of the Customer blog on the sidebar, but overall, I can't see how this is going to really help promote the "Breakfast From Heaven" idea, not in a month's time.
