Pepperidge Farm Sells Friendship (and Cookies)

Greetings. First of all, I must apologize for the scarcity of my posts over the past few weeks, but things have been QUITE hectic. Life should get back to normal starting today, as should the frequency of AttentionShoppers! posts.  

I don’t need to tell you that Social Networking is all that these days. Which is why this new effort from Pepperidge Farm is so interesting. They are not (like many companies) trying to create their own space for social networking. Rather, they are encouraging their consumers to use technology to re-connect with old friends and establish stronger relationships with new ones. 

This noble purpose may seem a bit of a stretch for a cookie company, but, then again, maybe not. Quite often Pepperidge Farm products are served among friends with a cup of coffee and a long, comfortable conversation. In any case, you have to give the marketers at Pepperidge Farm credit for finding a strong consumer insight, and then attempting to provide those consumers something of value based on that insight.  

Here is what the Friendly Folks at The New York Times had to say about the campaign.  So now, if you will excuse me, I must connect with some long-lost friends.

In the Spirit of the Season

Here is an effort from the good folks at Country Crock that is a combination of community and cause marketing. It is called Spread the Sharing, and the way it work is simple: if you share a story about food or meals, Country Crock will donate a meal to charity. There is a lot of nice content here, and it is easy to view or participate.

Specail thanks to Sarah Hanson from Digitas for pointing this out to me.

 A nice warm feeling as we roll into Thanksgiving week.

This Site Is In Bad Taste

I was listening to the radio today when I heard a commercial for Buckley’s Cough Syrup. The concept was simple—Buckley’s tastes bad, but works good. And that reminded me that I had bookmarked this online work that was sent my way by Craig Herrick, a copywriter at Digitas, not long ago.  Buckley’s online effort is on MySpace (what brand isn’t on MySpace these days?). I give them lots of credit for creating an online campaign that is consistent with their general work. I will give them even more credit if they are spending a good percentage of their budget online. I wonder if a lot of the people in their target (I would assume that it’s Moms) are actually seeing this work. Perhaps iVillage may have been a better choice?

Here’s the Story, of a Germ-Free Lady

Many of you have been writing Attention Shoppers! inquiring about the whereabouts of Florence Henderson, who burst into stardom and to a place in the pantheon of American pop culture with her riveting portrayal of a 1970’s American mom in the beloved TV classic, The Brady Bunch. Well, funny you should ask.  

Dame Henderson is currently putting her considerable thespian skills to use for the greater good of Agion. I must confess, I had never heard of Agion before. But it turns out that they are headquartered right in my backyard, in picturesque Wakefield, MA. It also turns out that Agion is, according to this press release, “a global leader in natural antimicrobial solutions.” 

I will let you discover the online experience yourself. It is pretty ambitious. And very, very strange. It is entitled “It’s Revolting” and will either disgust or delight “Brady Bunch” fans. I kind of like it. But I miss Marcia.

Even More Stinky Stuff

Continuing on a theme, today’s post again concerns humankind’s constant, epic struggle to smell better. And while my most recent musings concerned a rather expensive ways to improve one’s scent (pricey perfume from Dior), today we explore the opposite end of the spectrum: the wondrous product we call Febreze.   Like many other CPG companies, and companies in general, Febreze is rushing face first into FaceBook. Which seems like a good place for them to be, particularly for this effort, which targets college kids.  What’s more, Febreze makes it pretty easy for kids to take part in this campaign, simply asking them to upload a photo or post a comment of what they think stinks.

A few people have done so, and by a few, I literally mean a few (five, as of 10:30 on Friday November 2). The discussion board has but three topics, there are 87 wall posts, and the group has 847 members. There is a lot of really good content here, but I would guess the number of eyeballs seeing it at this point is not huge.

As CPG marketers, and marketers in general, we still have a long way to go to figure out the best way to harness the remarkable power of social networks.