The Magic Bagel

2011 EFFIE Award Review: 'Real Women Of Philadelphia'

Marketing Challenge: Kraft's Philadelphia Cream Cheese was considered America's favorite bagel spread and cheesecake ingredient, but that was no longer enough. Sales had flatlined. Consumers needed new reasons to buy the product.

The challenge was to get consumers to fall back in love with the brand, leveraging key insights into a growing product use -- cooking. Encouraging the use of Philly as an ingredient for recipes could turn sales around and catapult brand loyalty. The Real Women of Philly mixed an old truth -- women thrive when supported -- with a new truth: online sharing is easy, and made magic happen.

Creative Solution: How could we show that cream cheese wasn't just for bagels anymore -- and encourage women to show that to other women? We embraced the simple truth that when empowered by community, women love to share.

The concept was simple: cook, share, compete. But knowing our consumers only share information from trusted sources, we needed a partner who would inspire home cooks all across the country and spike interest in the contest. After extensive research, we enlisted Food Network star and social media maven Paula Deen to lead the program and promote it where home cooks congregate -- GoodBite, Food Network, etc.

Media Solution: The campaign enabled consumers to create video recipes using the product, post their videos to the site and compete for a chance to go to Georgia for a cook-off. Women started buying Philly, experimenting with recipes, and making new friends through the program's social media channels. On and offline media kept engagement strong.

In addition to the thousands of video entries submitted, consumers were sharing their recipe tips on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Contestants inspired others and recruited new participants. Home cooks became contest evangelists and brand champions -- a community of over 250,000 submitting or consuming content. Together with Kraft, we built an active brand, and we drove real results.

Results:

Talking Bagels and Magic Ponies « The Omnivore

Floating hospitals, death-defeating machines, angels, devil children, fairies: the supernatural, the magical, the surreal and sinister abound in your work. What’s useful about it?

The urge to have talking bagels or magic ponies or what have you in the story makes it easier to write about stuff that I find difficult to face emotionally or difficult to articulate emotionally. It makes some of that darker or more oppressive emotional stuff easier to manipulate or turn around in the story. Though ultimately the weirder it gets, the greater the onus for whatever sadness or triumphs the talking bagel or the magic pony experience to feel real to the reader—the more imperative it is that the emotional part of it feel real, be starkly recognizable.

That such a deep compassion exists hand in hand with linguistic playfulness and structural dexterity is as disarming as it is beguiling. Though this isn’t precisely a comedy, Adrian takes his cues from Shakespeare in providing plenty of rough larks, largely of a sexual sort … Indeed, one wonders whether he took Bottom the Weaver’s final admonishment – “Rehearse most obscenely and courageously.

Secret Ingredients, The New Yorker Book of Food and Drink

Roadmap to 6th Grade Math, Ohio Edition

The New Yorker

The magic teaspoon, transform your meals with the power of healing herbs and spices

Know It All! Grades 9-12 Math