Before we put the Oreo back into its case-study cupboard, let’s look a bit more at this brand. When people think of brand-building their mind often goes to examples of new ventures or product releases that hope to stake a claim in the marketplace. Branding for a mature brand—like, say, the Oreo—however, is more often about maintaining brand loyalty and a continued sense of brand excitement. The Oreo has been around since 1912. So I wondered, What is Kraft doing to stave off the dreaded image of the dusty has-been brand? Well, they build fun around the cookie. They employ a sense of humor. They try to position the Oreo as one of the things that make your American lifestyle “the good life.” And currently they are using traditional media, the Internet, and their Oreo website to do this in three creative ways. First, they have a homemade video contest for “Best Oreo Moments”—not very original but as we’ve seen, time and again, effective. Especially when tying into YouTube. Second, they have the “Fun with the Oreo & Milk Jingle”—another contest that features not only the winning singers & photos but a kind of quasi-karaoke thing going on for you on their site. Getting better. The best? Third, they’re employing the time-tested celebrity bandwagon approach—but with a twist. Instead of just running some celebrity cookie-eating campaign, they’ve established DSRL.com, an online “channel” whose acronym stands for “Double Stuf Racing League.” It’s a sport parody in which two people race to finish off the cream on the inside one Double Stuf Oreo. The feature first launched as an ad during Super Bowl XLII with a race between QB brothers Peyton and Eli Manning. But now they’ve upped the ante with tennis’s sensational sisters Venus and Serena Williams challenging the football stars in a race for the title. The site has a fake press conference, fake news scroll of the hype, branded league clothing, fan avatars—Oh, I just can’t do it justice in a description; here’s the link: http://www.nabiscoworld.com/oreo/dsrl/home.aspx The upshot? Absurd, kitschy, attention-drawing, and totally on target with Oreo's“All-America fun” brand attribute. I give that an A for creativity.
So brand-building doesn’t have to be dull. Put on your creative thinking caps and see what ideas you can come up with to communicate your brand attributes to the marketplace.
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