Set clear objectives upfront but test and learn as you go. Don’t lie to or embarrass your consumers or “friends”.Ĥ:47 – The brand experience must be remarkable. Provide content in a format and in a location that they find useful and familiar.Ĥ:46 – Be respectful and treat consumers as friends. Provide meaningful and relevant brand experiences for consumers. There is a natural gravitational pull towards a niche (like a weight management community). As a part of a live taste-testing the brand recorded consumer testimonials that were then available to bloggers.Ĥ:44 – Fiber One also created some online games.Ĥ:45 – Key learnings: Consumers are willing to participate and be included with brands. This makes it easier for bloggers to share their opinions.
Fiber One created a Embeddable Microsite that provided blog readers with coupons and free product. Bloggers want to get involved and they want to interact with the company as an insider through one-on-one engagement.Ĥ:43 – Part of the key is to find tools that the bloggers want to use. They created a “snack attack” video featuring Hungry Girl and her staff and did some early product seeding – bloggers had the opportunity to try the product first and share a product review.Ĥ:42 – General Mills also connected to Facebook and Twitter where consumers like to talk about Yogurt.Ĥ:42 – Fiber One also connected with consumers through key partners like SparkPeople (a diet/fitness site).Ĥ:42 – The biggest watch-out is not getting involved. They send bloggers product on a relationship basis to let them know about new products. They got very positive feedback from the people in their community who they sent the mailer to.Ĥ:39 – To launch the product they also worked with Bloggers in a program called My Blog Spark. They also did a personal mailing to people in the “Psst…” community who were active dieters and sent them free product. They also featured a video message from Hungry Girl and a Hungry Girl book giveaway.
The newsletter included Fiber One Yogurt messaging with a coupon. They also get free product or high value coupons. For example they got a “behind the scenes” preview of the Betty Crocker kitchen and are the first to know about new products.
The goal was to drive trial and conversation.Ĥ:36 – General Mills has a program called “Pssst…” that provides “insiders” with special information about the company and a preview of news. They planned to leverage Hungry Girl as the spokesperson. For Fiber One the objective was to build awareness and position the Yogurt as a great dieting tool. Fiber One actually has Hungry Girl as an endorser on the package.Ĥ:35 – Objectives & Strategies are important so that you can measure success. She has over 1 million subscribers to her email. The sales and conversations are very highly correlated.Ĥ:34 – Hungry Girl is a blogger who sends a daily email, and said that Fiber One bars taste better than Snickers.
Social Media is a broad term that covers all consumer engagement areas – forums, ratings, reviews, twitter, Facebook, etc.Ĥ:33 – Fiber One snack bars launch showed that online conversations were the second most important driver of sales (after being on shelf). For example, Betty Crocker has been getting letters from consumers for many, many years.Ĥ:32 – Today David is going to focus on Fiber One 50-Calorie Yogurt from April 2009 – March 2010. General Mills is in the process of going social and different brands are in different places. 4:30 – Andy Sernovitz introduces David Witt, Manager, Brand Public Relations at General Mills.Ĥ:31 – General Mills brands are found in virtually every household in America – Pillsbury, Yoplait, Cherios, etc.