Macaroni & Cheese: New And Not Improved

Credits & Description:

Title: New And Not Improved
Agency: Cp+B
Brand: Kraft Heinz
Country: USA
Entrant Company: Cp+B, Boulder
Advertising Agency: Cp+B, Boulder
Media Agency: Starcom, Chicago
Pr Agency: Olson Engage, Chicago
Chief Creative Officer: Ralph Watson (Cp+B)
Vp/ Executive Creative Director: Adam Chasnow (Cp+B)
Creative Director: Darcy Oneill (Cp+B)
Vp/Group Strategy Director: Kaylin Goldstein (Cp+B)
Senior Art Director: Tyler Gonerka (Cp+B)
Senior Copywriter: Emily Salas (Cp+B)
Senior Strategist: Rebecca Harris (Cp+B)
Vp/ Director Of Content Production: Kate Hildebrant (Cp+B)
Vp/ Executive Integrated Producer: Deb Drumm (Cp+B)
Integrated Producer: Jamie Slade (Cp+B)
Vp/ Managing Director: Devin Reiter (Cp+B)
Vp/ Group Account Director: Evan Russack (Cp+B)
Account Director: Kelly Olech (Cp+B)
Director: Hank Perlman (Hungry Man)
Director Of Photography: Eric Steelberg (Hungry Man)
Line Producer: Caleb Dewart (Hungry Man)
Executive Producer: Mino Jarjoura (Hungry Man)
Executive Music Producer: Joel Simon (Jsm Music)
Editor: Owen Plotkin (The Now Corporation)
Assistant Editor: Jessica Dowling (The Now Corporation)
Outcome:
The taste test was covered by hundreds of media outlets, from E! to the New York Times, and 92% of the articles had a positive tone. Stephen Colbert even devoted his entire Late Show monologue to the campaign.Three weeks after announcing that we’d pulled off the largest blind taste test in history, the campaign had over one billion earned media impressions. It also generated a 291% increase in visits to kraftmacandcheese.com compared to the previous month.Most importantly, 50 million boxes of mac and cheese were sold during the three-month taste test period, a figure consistent with the same quarter of the previous year, and less than 40 people reported a change in taste via social and consumer hotline channels. Those figures helped us eliminate any concern about a change in taste, because they proved that this Kraft Mac & Cheese still tasted like Kraft Mac & Cheese.
Strategy:
There were three audiences for this brief: loyalists, switchers and new users. Kraft wanted to reassure loyalists that the taste wasn’t changing, which is why the blind taste test was targeted at people who eat Kraft Mac & Cheese on a regular basis. Kraft also felt confident that the campaign would attract new users and switchers by showcasing their ingredient changes while reminding people of the iconic taste of Kraft Mac & Cheese. When we announced that we’d pulled off the largest blind taste test in history, we needed to explain it. The TV introduced millions to the basic story, while the website and online video went deeper. Magazine ads, banners, social posts, radio, in-store, a Snapchat integration and vast media coverage helped drive home the message, and we c continued to sustain the story of the stunt throughout the year using new TV spots, print, and social.
Campaign Description:
These days, everyone’s removing artificial stuff from their food, and they love advertising it. But when it came to re-launching Kraft’s iconic mac & cheese, we knew we had to do things differently, because the power of suggestion is strong. People swore they could taste a difference when Kraft first announced this change was coming, and the new recipe wasn’t even on shelves yet. So we decided not to advertise the change at all. When the new recipe was finally ready, Kraft packaged it in old boxes, changing only the ingredient label. Then we watched for three months as America devoured 50 million boxes of the new recipe without noticing a thing. Finally, we announced that we’d pulled off the largest blind taste test in history, and that America’s silence had proven the new recipe tasted the same, and we continued to watch America love it for all of 2016.
Relevancy:
The idea behind the “New and not improved” campaign was a simple one. But after three months of silence, we had a complicated story to tell, and we had to figure out the best way to make the story last all year. Each piece of the campaign tied into the next, providing Americans with all the information they needed to understand why we conducted the largest blind taste test in history - and more importantly, how we pulled it off.
Synopsis:
In April 2015, Kraft announced they would be removing all artificial flavors, preservatives and dyes from their macaroni & cheese. While some people were ecstatic, lots of Kraft loyalists were extremely worried that taking out the artificial stuff would change the iconic Kraft Mac & Cheese taste that Americans have loved for almost 80 years. Even though Kraft had done years of testing and multiple iterations of the new recipe to make sure they got the taste and color just like the original, people were still concerned. We were tasked with advertising the change, but we knew we had to tread lightly.
Execution:
Kraft removed artificial flavors, preservatives and dyes from their mac and cheese in 2015. Although Kraft originally planned to begin advertising the new recipe when they started selling it, we counseled them to stay quiet for a few months to prove nobody would notice a change in taste. In September 2015, Kraft began printing 50 million new boxes that looked exactly like their old ones, updating only the ingredient label to covertly sell the new recipe. They began shipping these boxes to stores nationwide in November 2015. In December 2015, stores began selling the new recipe, unbeknownst to their employees or customers. On March 7, 2016, we announced we’d successfully pulled off the largest blind taste test in history, and the results were what Kraft had hoped – virtually nobody noticed a change in taste. We continued spreading that message throughout 2016 with new executions that kept the recipe top-of