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Stephanie Kaplan is a writer who is a native of our nation's capitol. Before joining Adotas as an editorial intern in February 2006, Stephanie worked in marketing for various websites and magazines. She keeps track of all of Kiran's lost IPOD tracks.

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It Sure Ain’t Your Good Old Mac n’ Cheese

Written on
Apr 24, 2006 
Author
Stephanie Kaplan  |
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It Sure Ain’t Your Good Old Mac n’ Cheese

For those young adults, or those young at heart, that yearn fondly for that Kraft Macaroni & Cheese from their childhood, FCBi has created a new Flash online campaign for that good old Mac N’ Cheese. The problem is that the campaign site is neither good nor cheesy because it fails to really push the old brand that we have come to love, and it doesn’t execute the new branding for the Easy Mac Cups effectively. Stephen Strong, VP, Director of Interactive Services of FCBiresponds, “We purposely decided not to over-brand the microsite. However, Easy Mac Cups can be found throughout the site. It is the core focus of the video content and the Scam Some Mac section allows users to convince others to buy and send them Easy Mac Cups.”

The campaign launched March 30 with three print advertisements, three television spots, one spot exclusively for the Web, and online advertising on AtomFilms.com, Yahoo.com, IGN.com, FHM.com, iFilm.com, Comedy Central, and Shockwave.com to draw traffic to the website. The ads use Pointroll rich media advertising with broadband video placements. Word about the campaign is getting out via a joint PR plan between FCBi and Kraft to let people know about the microsite. “We are hoping that the fun interactive nature of the ‘Eat It Dude’ will encourage word of mouth traffic. Also, the ‘Scam Some Mac’ section encourages users to send emails to their friends and family.”

Strongalso explains, “The online Easy Mac Cups creative was a direct extension of the overall campaign. We decided early in the process to take the ‘Need Food Now?’ premise and find creative ways to bring it online. This is how the interactive video section (Eat It Dude) and the ‘Scam Some Mac’ content originated.” Although the opening Flash graphics are quite effective in drawing users into the site, the only section of the St. Arvin Student Bulletin Board that really calls viewers to action is the pink “Scan Some Mac” banner, which draws users to read letters that St. Arvin (Starvin, get it?) University students have written asking Kraft to send them or others some Easy Mac Cups to ease their cravings. Users can then click on a somewhat nondescript arrow and purchase Easy Mac Cups from the site.

Furthermore, in order to read these Easy Mac letters, one has to click on a picture of the student and then figure out which of two arrows to click on to actually read the letter; too many clicks and not enough information. The other “flyers” on the bulletin board don’t even take the user anywhere, so what is the point of these graphics?

With a second phase of site content planned for later this year, my only wish is that, as one of the prized consumers who grew up on Macaroni & Cheese, I see more Mac N’ Cheese goodness in this microsite’s future.





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