Kraft Foods, Northfield, IL, last week announced media alliances with New York City entertainment conglomerates AOL Time Warner and Viacom Plus worth “several hundred million dollars.”
The one-year deals enable Kraft to use various AOL Time Warner and Viacom properties for integrated brand marketing initiatives. Kraft spent $1 billion on media advertising in 2000 and $540 million in the first half of 2001, according to Competitive Media Reporting, New York City.
Kraft’s media agencies, led by agency of record MediaVest, Chicago, will work with the company’s marketing teams to set national plans for Kraft’s 70-plus brands. Kraft worked with Viacom this year on a TV, online, and outdoor campaign for salad dressings. A project with AOL Time Warner supported Boca vegetarian burgers and meat substitutes with TV (including sponsorship of “Your Health” segments on CNN Headline News), print (in Time, Inc. titles), AOL ads, and health club ads.
“Both Viacom Plus and AOL Time Warner offer the spectrum of media possibilities necessary to build cutting-edge integrated marketing programs for our icon brands,” said Kraft president of e-commerce and marketing services Paula Sneed in a statement.
Kraft is the latest packaged goods giant to strike a consolidated media deal, which in addition to saving money via group buys allows them to better target audiences with closer ties to specific networks and programs. Last spring, Cincinnati-based Procter & Gamble signed a $300 million deal with Viacom and Louisville, KY-based Tricon Restaurants a $90 million pact with New York City-based News Corp.
In separate news, Kraft said it will cut 1,000 jobs via a voluntary retirement program announced as part consolidation efforts following its merger with Nabisco. The cuts represent less than one percent of Kraft’s 117,000-member work force.
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