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Kraft Foods' Oscar Mayer ties mobile, video together with new initiative

Kraft Foods' Oscar Mayer is leveraging mobile, video and social with a campaign that lets consumers create short video clips via an application.

Oscar Mayer is the first brand to integrate itself into the Montaj mobile app to promote its new Grandpa Frank character. App users can cut pieces of the brand?s commercials into their own customized videos.

?We are always looking for new and innovative ways to engage consumers, and mobile is a great space to reach them,? said Tom Bick, senior director of marketing communications and advertising at Oscar Mayer, Madison, WI. ?From the moment we learned about Montaj, we knew we wanted to be the first brand to work with this dynamic start-up.

At the same time, we were looking to amplify the viral success of the new Grandpa Frank character in our latest Deli Fresh commercial,? he said.

?Montaj proved to be the perfect platform to bring Frank to life on mobile and to give our fans the opportunity to insert Grandpa Frank?s transparent responses right into their own high-quality, Web-optimized commercials.?

Mobile moments
Montaj is a free app that consumers can download from Apple?s App Store. To use it, consumers need to create an account that is linked to an email address or a Facebook or Google account.

Users can then find the Oscar Mayer template at the top of the page and can fill out a storyboard to create their miniature film.

The storyboard consists of six pieces of content.

Three of the pieces are user-created and lets consumers record short bits of footage by tapping their finger on the screen. The other three pieces of content are clips from Oscar Mayer commercials that break up the video with commentary from Grandpa Frank.

Users can also shake their phone to refresh the Oscar Mayer content and can rearrange the order that the clips display.

There are also editing features that let users trim footage, add color filters and apply music to their clip.

New content from Oscar Mayer will be added to the app on a weekly basis.

Once consumers complete their video, they are uploaded to the app and to Oscar Mayer?s YouTube page. The videos can also be shared across social channels with the hashtag # TransparentGrandpa.

Additionally, Oscar Mayer will highlight the top videos through its Facebook, Twitter and YouTube pages. The brand will also promote the campaign through digital media buys across mobile and social inventory.

Oscar Mayer?s campaign runs through June 13.

Mobile video
Oscar Mayer?s new campaign points to the growing role of video and social media in mobile marketing.

User-generated content is a hot area in mobile given the initial success of platforms such as Twitter-owned Vine and Facebook?s mobile video features.

Additionally, Kraft has invested a lot in mobile video for its advertising efforts.

For example, Kraft recently ran a mobile video campaign within the Hulu Plus iPhone app to promote a new campaign for its Zesty Italian salad dressings (see story).

The consumer-packaged-goods brand also used mobile video display ads to promote its Philadelphia cream cheese line earlier this year (see story).

?Mobile is growing more than ever and Oscar Mayer recognizes the significance in engaging with our consumers through this growing space,? Mr. Bick said.

?Everyone is a filmmaker with their smart phones and we realize by giving consumers the tool of Montaj, it can elevate their normal videos into more shareable and higher-quality films,? he said.

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