Kraft Foods-owned Jell-O is encouraging consumers to learn more about its brand via a new mobile initiative that features recipes consumers can make using the company?s products.

The company is running the mobile campaign within Us Magazine?s mobile site. Jell-O has used mobile advertising in the past to drive user engagement.

"The Jell-O mobile advertising campaign is generally well-designed and functional, with the ability to click on the banner ad to expand the ad unit to see the full recipe and flick between different pictures of the items," said Simon Buckingham, CEO of Appitalism, New York.

"It is useful to be able to see the amount of preparation time, total time including cooling and serving size that makes the recipe requires," he said. "The recipes are very compelling to those viewers with a sweet tooth, and include items that most Jell-O eaters would not simply come up with themselves ? they really show good uses of the product."

"The main criticism I have with this campaign is that the font used for the titles of the recipe items is a little difficult to read ? it's hard to see whether the recipe is called Chocolate-Caramel Turtle Torte or Twirl Torte for example."

Mr. Buckingham is not affiliated with Jell-O. He commented based on his expertise on the subject.

Jell-O did not respond to press inquiries.

Kargo is powering the mobile campaign.

Furthermore, Jell-O did one month sponsorships of both the Meredith Plus video portal and the Recipes section on Parenting Magazine?s mobile site. This enabled the campaign to have an even more comprehensive reach among the targeted consumer base.

Mobile sweets
The Jell-O mobile add reads ?Chocolate-Caramel Turtle Torte. Expand to Get Recipe.?

When consumers tap on the mobile ad, the page expands to feature an image of the cake, as well as ingredients consumers need to have in order to make it.

The ad also features a carousel that includes other recipes such as Sparkling Raspberry Jigglers and Cranberry-Apple Pilgrim Pie.

Consumers can also view other Jell-O recipes. However, when they tap on the ?view recipes tab,? they are redirected to the company?s Web site, which is not optimized for mobile devices and leaves consumers having to pinch-and-zoom to browse the content.

Nevertheless, a campaign such as this is a great way to strengthen the company?s marketing and reach consumers in a new and interactive way.

Consumers are constantly on their mobile devices and using mobile ads to reach them proves to be effective, especially for Jell-O.

The company is not going to turn to mobile to sell its products, therefore, finding different channels is key.

Past efforts
Jell-O is no stranger to mobile.

In November, the company ran mobile banner ads that inspired consumers to whip up their own sweet treats in time for the holiday season (see story).

"Overall the Jell-O mobile ad campaign is pretty solid for a wobbly desert," Mr. Buckingham said.

Final Take
Rimma Kats is associate editor on Mobile Marketer, New York