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Rice Krispies boosts engagement with mobile voting in gingerbread event

Kellogg's is teaming up with Taste of Home magazine in a mobile holiday event in New York that shares Rice Krispies recipes and lets participants text to vote for their favorite-flavored gingerbread house and the chance to win a $5,000 cash prize.

The event ties in with the annual holiday tree-lighting ceremony in Madison Square Park, home of the first public holiday tree in the United States. The event shows how mobile can leveraged to create heart-warming sentiments during the holidays while enhancing consumer engagement with a well-known brand.

?We know our audience is more mobile than ever with 60 percent of our site traffic coming from mobile users,? said Joe Losardo, executive brand director of Taste of Home, a multiplatform outlet for food, cooking and entertaining information, with circulation of 2.5 million.

?Holidays, recipes and sweepstakes are huge hits with our audience, so this gingerbread experience is a new way to engage our users with our brand and Kellogg's while celebrating what they love,? Mr. Losardo said.
 
Gingerbread Boulevard
The event will mark the debut of Gingerbread Boulevard, a collection of three life-sized gingerbread houses. The houses will be unveiled next Tuesday to coincide with the annual Madison Square Park holiday tree lighting ceremony, and will stay on display until Dec. 23.

Rice Krispies and holiday gingerbread are frequently partnered.

The annual celebration, hosted by the Madison Square Park Conservancy, is packed with free family activities and live entertainment. Taste of Home will distribute holiday treats, along with a special Rice Krispies holiday recipe, to share fun, family-friendly ideas with attendees.
 
Each of the three houses, standing at six feet by six feet by four feet, celebrates a favorite holiday flavor: Peppermint Place, Cocoa Cottage and Cinnamon Shack. 

Visitors to the installation will be able to text to vote for their favorite flavor for a chance to win a $5,000 cash prize.  Attendees can also share and interact with the houses using the hashtag #TOHBLVD.  The winning house will be revealed on TasteofHome.com on Dec. 23. 

Additionally, there will be a landing page for those unable to visit the physical houses in New York, allowing them to vote on their favorites by viewing them online. 

Kellogg, like other major food brands, is using mobile to get the biggest bang for its buck from its events sponsorship.

In February, the cereal giant launched its biggest Olympic and Paralympics marketing campaign to date with mobile playing a key role in how the consumer packaged goods brand activated digital interactions through static packaging.

Calls to action
Kellogg plastered mobile calls-to-actions on cereal boxes from brands including Apple Jacks that promoted the ?From Great Starts Comes Great Things? campaign, which incorporated 11 different Olympic and Paralympic athletes and hopefuls. 

Sweet life on Gingerbread Boulevard.

Last year, Kellogg played up entertainment content as part of a partnership with Live Nation. In exchange for downloading an augmented reality app, consumers could unlock exclusive digital content by scanning the box.

?This gingerbread experience brings to life the two things we know our community loves: creating tasty food and celebrating the holidays,? Mr. Losardo said. ?What better way to celebrate than to bring the most iconic flavors of the holiday season to life in the middle of New York City??
 
Final Take
Michael Barris is staff reporter on Mobile Marketer, New York.