From Tasty to T&A

There are always scads of new products at the Food Marketing Institute’s annual show and this year was no exception, from Nestlé’s Toll House candy bars to Hot Fudge Sundae Pop-Tarts from Kellogg. This year, CPGs showcased a number of ambitious promotions as well. Here’s a sampling.

Campbell Soup Co. will expand Tasty Tuesdays, an in-store, in-home effort that’s been testing in Columbus, OH, since December. The account-specific campaign ties meal-center displays in-store (with partner Kroger, so far) to Sunday circulars and TastyTuesdays.com, where consumers register to get a new recipe each week via e-mail. The punch line comes when Food Network host Gordon Elliott pays a surprise visit to someone’s home (with camera crew in tow) and cooks dinner using Campbell soup and a simple list of ingredients. That footage airs as TV advertising with a new spot each week, tagged “Dinner will never be the same.” Drive-time radio rounds out the support, letting Campbell’s touch consumers online, in-store, via newspaper and broadcast — and for the lucky few, right in their own kitchens. Ryan Partnership, Westport, CT, handles. BBDO, New York City, does the ads. Spots use video instead of film; the money saved helps fund multiple executions, says Jeremy Fingerman, president-U.S. soup.

Camden, NJ-based Campbell will roll out the campaign in the fall after tweaking it this summer. Campbell plans to go national, and expects to get 1 million registrants for its database. The goal is to make Tasty Tuesdays a platform for national promotions.

The program is designed to “create a habit,” Fingerman says. Simple recipes “give Mom more table time with the family,” and displays tie to retailers’ own meal-solution sections.

“The biggest challenge is getting it executed in store,” says Jim Kenney, president-Campbell Sales Co.

Campbell has already benefited from word of mouth. Fully 600,000 consumers have registered at TastyTuesdays.com to get the weekly e-mail, despite the fact that media support only runs in Columbus.

Separately, Campbell expands its year-old Soup at Hand line with kid flavors, including Pizza and Taco, as well as adding adult flavors Chicken Noodle and Clam Chowder. Campbell moved up its ship date to July 11 to be in stores for back-to-school. Heavy sampling will support. The line hit $75 million in sales this year, better than the $50 million to $60 million Campbell had expected.

ConAgra Foods brings baseball greats to the mike for Armour’s Pick a Star summer sweeps. Four players (Roger Clemens, Ken Griffey Jr., Derek Jeter and Sammy Sosa) sing — yes, they sing — the Armour hot dog jingle, and fans vote for their fave. Each vote is a sweeps entry to win one of 1,500 pieces of autographed memorabilia. Consumers hear the jingle in TV spots and via a toll-free number flagged on packages and in FSIs. A shelf-talk display puts the crooners in-store for July and August, where fans can hear the jingle at the press of a button. The Promotion Network, Chicago, handles with ad support via Grey, New York City.

This is the fourth year that Omaha, NE-based ConAgra uses baseball players as “Armour Stars,” but it’s the first year ConAgra has asked them to sing.

Kellogg Co. will spend the holidays with The Cat in the Hat. A tie-in to the Universal Pictures film (starring Mike Meyers and slated for holiday release) will include a special Cat in the Hat cereal and may extend to snack brands including Pop-Tarts. In-pack premiums will feature Cat characters, and Kellogg may field a Cat backpack offer as well. Draft, Chicago, is lead agency.

Meanwhile, Battle Creek, MI-based Kellogg partners with Cartoon Network for back-to-school displays that put Ernie Keebler behind the wheel of a school bus. A mail-in offer touts spinning desktop toys, with two sets of four toys (one Powerpuff Girls, the other Cartoon Cartoon) for three proofs of purchase per set. Cartoon Network characters show up as products, too, with Powerpuff and Dexter’s Laboratory mini-sandwich cookies (the crème changes color in your mouth). That complements Scooby Doo cheddar crackers, cereal and Eggo waffles (with Scooby’s face stamped in the center) and Lion King animal crackers.

The best promotional product may be Pop-Tart’s summer-only flavor, Hot Fudge Sundae: It’s a regular Pop-Tart, but displays suggest you pop it in the freezer instead of the toaster.

Kraft Foods will run a back-to-school Win a Sports Star for Your School sweeps, awarding a visit from a professional athlete and 1,000 instant-win prizes. School bus displays carry Nabisco and Kraft snacks under the theme “Snack Back to School.”

Next month Kraft wraps up its Uh-Oh! Oreos campaign that put vanilla cookies with chocolate cream on shelf, then asked consumers to vote at oreo.com on whether Kraft should keep making the “mistake” cookies. Each vote is a sweeps entry to win $10,000 and a case of cookies. Five $100 prizes are awarded daily through mid-July. EastWest Creative, New York City, handles.

Pepsi-Cola Co. dangles a billion-dollar (yes, with a B) prize with its Pepsi Play for a Billion sweeps, running through August. One thousand winners will appear on a live TV show hosted by Drew Carey on Sept. 14 to vie for $1 million and the big B-word prize (see Deals, p. 16). Packages of Pepsi (including Diet Pepsi, Pepsi Blue and Twist) carry game pieces with codes; 250,000 also have instant-win messages awarding $15. Tracy Locke Partnership, Wilton, CT,. A $10 million TV campaign supports via BBDO, New York City.

In the midst of this, Pepsi celebrates July 4 with “AmeriCans,” four patriotic designs for flagship Pepsi, one appearing each week mid-June through mid-July. Collector cans from 2002’s Go 4th and Celebrate displays boosted volume 8% for the holiday week.

Miller Brewing Co. buddies up with Milwaukee neighbor Harley-Davidson as official sponsor of Harley’s 100th anniversary. A 100 Years, 100 Bikes online sweeps breaking mid-July will award 100 Harleys and trips to the Aug. 31 anniversary party in Milwaukee. One bike and trip are awarded nationally. Regional marketing staffers execute local promos — some with Harley dealers — to award the other 99. Zipatoni, St. Louis, handles. A series of eight commemorative cans tout Harley designs. P-O-P features the sexy babes from Miller’s popular “Cat Fight” TV spot that revived Miller Lite’s classic tagline “Tastes Great, Less Filling” in a whole new way. The women also appeared in promotional materials for the April-May Destination: Miller Time flight that gave away 100 prizes a day, from $1,000 travel vouchers to portable bars and T-shirts.