Mix some Philadelphia Cream Cheese with a few of your favorite ingredients and you could be on your way to winning the “Real Women of Philadelphia Recipe Contest.” The contest, sponsored by Kraft, began July 19. Each week through Nov. 7, one contestant will win $500, for a total of 80 winners, and the chance to have her recipe appear in the “Real Women of Philadelphia” cookbook.
The contest is an incentive for women to participate in the brand’s Real Women of Philadelphia community, www.realwomenofphiladelphia.com. The site launched in March with support from “Food Network” superstar Paula Deen and uses video to teach multiple ways to cook with Philadelphia Cream Cheese. A casting call for “real” women has selected four representatives to serve with Deen as the faces of the brand. By early August, about 300,000 visitors were actively engaged in the site and the videos had 19 million views.
Adam Butler, brand manager at Kraft Foods, explains how the contest enhances the overall community activity and boosts sales.
CM: How does the contest fit into the Philadelphia brand’s overall plan?
BUTLER: From historical marketing mix data, we know that video demonstrations of cooking with Philly translate to sales at retail. Just like you would look at television or print, that’s how we look at the impact of the videos. So people coming to the site to enter the contest will also engage in the videos.
CM: How will you continue the relationship with contest entrants to further move sales?
BUTLER: One way is to offer coupons to bring people into the community and to pass along to friends, so there is that direct redemption model that we can track. We have also engaged Comscore to help us understand the changes in offline sales due to the program in general. We’re looking at how many people are engaging. How many are coming back to the site? Are we building brand advocates? Our repeat rate is about 25%, so we feel like we have a long-term idea here.
CM: How has the brand been performing?
BUTLER: We had been talking only about bagels and cheesecakes, and sales were getting flat. We saw that our customers were cooking more with Philly and we had seen some success from our international partners using Philly for cooking, so we went that route. Our market share is up this year. It’s a big category, so we’re really excited about any changes in growth.
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