"Interactive Food & Beverage Marketing" (PDF)

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Interactive Food & Beverage Marketing | Setting the Stage
Advertisers conference, as he explained his company’s major push into digital
marketing. 28 Some industry observers have suggested that the public pressure over concerns
about childhood obesity may be accelerating the “migration” by food companies
into these “alternative platforms.” 29 Many of the same corporations engaged in prosocial,
anti-obesity campaigns in the United States are also playing leadership roles in the
new global digital marketing frontier, directing a number of research-and-development
(R&D) initiatives to create the next generation of interactive advertising, much of it tailored
specifically for young people.
A snapshot of recent and current marketing efforts by some of the top food and
beverage brands popular with children and teens offers a glimpse into the variety of digital
strategies that are quickly becoming state-of-the-art—and increasingly present in children’s
lives—in the contemporary media environment:
• In 2005, McDonald’s launched a “mobile marketing” campaign to “create a
compelling way to connect with the younger demographic,” as 600 of the
chain’s fast food restaurants in California urged young cell phone users to text
message to a special phone number and receive an instant electronic coupon
for a free McFlurry dessert. McDonald’s also encouraged youth to “download
free cell phone wallpaper and ring tones featuring top artists,” and to email the
promotional website link to their friends. To help bolster the campaign, ads on
buses, billboards, “wild postings” near high schools, and even skywriting airplanes
promoted the “Text McFlurry 73260” message. 30
• When Nickelodeon bought the highly popular online game, Neopets, in 2005, to
become part of the new TurboNick website, one of its goals was to “monetize”
the huge amount of traffic the game site enjoyed by inserting more brands. In a
game where the object is to keep your Neopet alive by feeding her regularly
(ensuring your repeated visits to the site), executives envision a future scenario
in which game players “will be feeding their pets with food products from major
brands.” 31 Among the major food companies already involved in “advergaming”
on Neopets are Frito-Lay, Nestle, Kellogg’s, Mars, Procter & Gamble, General
Mills, Kraft Foods, McDonald’s, and Carl’s Jr./Hardees. 32
• In 2006, the Online Marketing, Media and Advertising Conference named
Burger King an “Online Marketing All Star” for its pioneering new-media campaigns.
The “first advertiser to sponsor downloadable TV shows on a social networking
site,” Burger King partnered with Fox Broadcasting to distribute
episodes of the TV channel’s show “24” on the highly-popular MySpace (owned
by NewsCorp, which also owns Fox). 33
• For the 2007 Super Bowl, Frito-Lay’s Doritos (a subsidiary of PepsiCo) worked
with Yahoo! to create a “Crash the Super Bowl” contest and website. The chip
company promised to air at least one “user generated” commercial during the
show. Doritos set up a special website—“SnackStrongProductions.com”—where
viewers could view the final five contestants, vote for their favorites, and “tell a
friend” about the contest via email. 34
• Kraft’s Oscar Mayer is working with a new-media marketing company,
MangoMOBILE, to offer the brand’s classic jingle as a ring tone on cell phones.
Results will be measured through MangoCRM, MangoMOBILE’s targeted mobile
subscriber database, which offers its clients “real measurable data on any type
of exposure or interaction that customers have had with a brand.” 35