Oreo DSRL

Our beloved cookie with frosting filled center has recently launched a social media campaign.   Oreo has paid for Donald Trump, Darrel Hammond, Eli Manning, and Peyton Manning to be a part of an effort to promote their product, the double stuffed Oreo.  The campaign is based around the DSRL which is a contest designed around who can eat Oreos the fastest.  Brandweek recently wrote an article about the campaign called, “How Kraft’s Double Stuf Oreo Launch Trumped Expectations” implying that the campaign is extremely successful (and yes, playing on Trump’s name) but I haven’t seen this success yet and am still trying to understand why that article was titled in such a way.

The campaign cost them an estimated 7 million dollars in advertising alone through 2009 which excludes online; so it’s safe to say that the campaign actually cost them much more.  I should also mention that the campaign also features other marketing such as television commercials and offline events, the social media aspect is one aspect that they are apparently really trying to focus on and push to get people to interact with the brand.  I won’t get into all the  details of the campaign but you can check out the Brandweek article above for more information.  The company has over 2.8 million fans on their Oreo Facebook page and 671 followers on their Oreo Twitter account.  Oreo also developed a microsite where you can find out about what’s going on with the Trumps vs Mannings duel.

According to Kraft there his been a lot of rich dialogue around their Oreo brand…oh really?  Well here’s a gold star for spending millions on “rich dialogue.”  I’m not saying dialogue isn’t important but let’s be realistic here, if you’re spending millions on a campaign you better be getting a lot more then dialogue.  I haven’t been able to find any metrics online that Oreo is using to measure the success of their campaign but from the way things sound they are mainly concerned with conversation.  If you recall, I discussed that ROI should not only provide for an increased financial return but should also strengthen the brand, so hopefully Oreo will see both of these things happen in the coming months and in the following years.

So my question to you, and to Oreo is, “do you think the campaign is worth the tens of millions of dollars that were spent?”  Granted I think it’s still a bit early to tell but do you think Oreo made a smart decision investing so much money into this campaign?  What would you have done with all of this money?

Comments