Creative Showcase: Kraft Easy Mac

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Client: Kraft Foods North America
Creative Agency: Foote Cone & Belding

Historically, Kraft's macaroni & cheese brands have focused on the mom consumer. But with the launch of new Easy Mac Cups, there was an opportunity to venture into some uncharted waters. After a lot of thought and analysis, Kraft and FCB Chicago agreed that the product was perfect for young adults. They're looking for instant gratification, something good that doesn't take a lot of time or effort and that's exactly what Easy Mac Cups offer.

When we were coming up with the campaign, we decided to use college as a backdrop. Perpetually hungry students, little money, no time or inclination to cook, it's the perfect place for Easy Mac Cups. And although we knew some of the consumers were beyond college age, we knew they could relate to the college humor.

For the TV spots, the idea was to use simple, funny dorm room situations to show people why they should keep Easy Mac Cups on hand. That's where the "Need Food Now? Mic Some Mac" copy came from. Choosing the actual college came down to the fictitious "University of ST. ARVIN" and their bitter rival "Emaciated State." We went with "U. ST. ARVIN"

From there, the campaign easily integrated into both print and online advertising, as well as an interactive website that lets you make a St. Arvin student eat things left around his room, or send an email to someone to beg for an Easy Mac Cups care package.

With the campaign just launching, it's too early to tell success. However, the initial online tracking shows the interactive campaign is performing exceptionally well. And, after only three months in market, Easy Mac Cups have already exceeded sales expectations.
-- Bob Jensen, VP creative director, FCB Chicago

Creative Showcase is meant to be a teaching tool and an inspiration for our readers. We comment only on creative that we really love. Our panelists discuss what makes it great, but if they feel there were missed opportunities that would have made it better, we invite them to mention those. And finally, we seek out a wide range of opinions that reflect the marketplace for the panel, in order to provide constructive, useable feedback for agencies, clients and others involved in these creative pieces.

Kudos to FCB and the team that put this site together. From the cinematic open to the intuitive navigation and the constant stream of funny surprises, this collection of amusements hits the sensibilities of the target right on the head. The technique of simulated large screen video, which the viewer can interact with, is becoming common now, but this is an excellent execution. What separates it is not its technical prowess, but how clever and entertaining the pieces are. The hungry guy in his dorm room is genuinely funny, the ideas are fresh and the performance is excellent. As the technology allows us to get closer and closer to a full screen, to a fully interactive environment, like in the best games, it's rapidly coming down to the creative rather than the execution. For a long time interactive agencies have been focused on "special effects," but as we see in movies every day, special effects are pretty hollow unless there's creative substance to go with them. This has it in spades.
-- Tony Quin, CEO, IQ Interactive

Experiential marketing has officially moved into the online mainstream. Not too long ago, experiential sites were only for expensive cars, high-end shoe brands or the fashion elite. Today, however, more and more advertisers are experimenting with this powerful approach to connecting with their target audience (in this case, broke and starving college students).

The Scam Some Mac site is a fun and humorous tour of St. Arvin (Starving) and the hungry college students within. This Kraft site does a nice job of pulling you in and sending you exploring the virtual halls (including a short intro that feels like the beginning of a sitcom). The experience comes complete with well-integrated TV spots, a viral element that lets you ask others to send you some mac and cheese, and even a guy that will eat anything in his dorm room that you click on-- my favorite part of the experience. More importantly, this site's message comes through loud and clear, and the experience is on target. Although it would have been great to see this site do more with the video content (video shot specifically for the online experience vs. repurposed TV spots), overall it's a thumbs up.
-- Kirk Drummond, VP of creative and innovation, T3