Kraft Foods? Velveeta is turning to mobile to show consumers how to mix its cheese product into everyday recipes with an advertising campaign that includes video and rich media.

The Velveeta mobile ad is part of the brand?s bigger marketing campaign with the tagline ?Liquid gold diggers love liquid gold? that highlights classic recipes that are made with the cheese loaf. The mobile ads are running within the Marie Claire mobile site.

"CPGs like Kraft have such a great opportunity to drive traffic and sales by using mobile ads," said Marci Troutman, CEO Of SiteMinis, Atlanta.

"Consumers are looking for offers, coupons and contests that will enable them to save money at the stores and will continue to do so for a while longer as we repair our economy," she said.

"Mobile ads, if done properly, can add extreme value to brands with awareness of new products and promotions. There are less commercials being watched and listened to with ad-free Pandora, Netflix and others ? getting a brand out there in front of the consumer will continue to be challenging as the digital age becomes more accepted with consumers."

Ms. Troutman is not affiliated with Velvetta. She commented based on her expertise on the subject.

Velvetta did not meet press deadline.

Mobile gold
The mobile ad features scrolling animation that reads, ?I can?t get enough of U,? followed by the campaign?s tagline.

The banner ad then prompts users to click-through to find recipes.

When tapped on, the ad expands to feature a landing page with Kraft recipes and how-to videos.

Users can swipe through a photo gallery of five different recipes, such as macaroni and cheese and tortilla soup.

Each recipe is linked with a video that walks users through a step-by-step guide on how to make the recipe.

Consumers can also view written directions for the recipe by clicking through on the ?download recipes? section. The button redirects users to Kraft?s mobile site.

Consumers constantly have their mobile device on hand. Therefore, directing consumers to a mobile site that they can save and access later in the grocery store is a smart move.

Mobile past
Kraft Foods has actively been building up its mobile strategy in the past year.

Last year, Kraft spun out its business into two divisions ? Kraft Foods and Mondelez International. A new program called Mobile Futures was announced for Mondelez International brands, which includes Oreo and Trident (see story).

Most recently, Kraft used a mixture of mobile and social media to help promote its line of Zesty salad dressings (see story). 

In this case, using rich media is a smart way for Kraft Foods to cement its place in the mobile advertising space.

"CPG brands are starting to put a true 360-degree mobile and digital strategy in place by testing what works and what doesn?t work," Ms. Troutman said.

"We are still at the beginning stages of these strategies being defined, as digital grows at a rapid rate, and CPGs realize that their consumer base is digital the brands will engage and put real-time and money behind the strategies for acquiring and retaining consumers going forward," she said.

"Traditional ways of marketing are changing, and brands need to change as well."

Final Take
Lauren Johnson is associate reporter on Mobile Marketer, New York