Dive Brief:
- Campbell Soup Company kicked off a new social and digital campaign aimed at promoting home cooked meals, the company announced in a press release shared with Marketing Dive.
- The New Pantry campaign includes custom content and Instagram Stories about how meals at home can bring people together. Media agency Spark Foundry created the three-phased effort. It will run across mobile video publisher Group Nine's NowThis Food, Popsugar and Thrillist sites.
- Phase one of the effort builds on existing social, video and written content with updated messaging, while the second phase includes custom content and Instagram Stories related to food and family that aims to brings positivity, utility and value to viewers' everyday lives. The third phase will include influencer-hosted virtual experiences.
Dive Insight:
Campbell Soup Company is extending its partnerships in a new campaign on digital and social channels as consumers in most states are still subject to coronavirus-related lockdowns and are cooking more at home. Previously, Campbell tested Group Nine's shoppable Sparkle ads. Sparkle is a mobile-optimized platform specializing in social commerce that lets marketers link ads to shopping sites like Amazon and Walmart.
Hosting the content on Instagram and sites like NowThis Food, Popsugar and Thrillist may help the company reach younger audiences that Campbell is targeting. The campaign comes just days after Group Nine expanded its content partnership with Facebook, Deadline reported.
At a time when most restaurants are closed and many people have more free time, home cooking has surged in popularity, driving a lift in consumers sharing photos and videos of their culinary endeavors online. The New Pantry campaign looks to tap into this momentum by giving home cooks recipe inspiration that employs Campbell's products as well as shareable social content to extend the campaign's reach.
Other brands are running similar efforts to integrate their respective products into shareable recipes during lockdown. Avocados From Mexico is taking advantage of Cinco de Mayo to promote avocado and guacamole recipes online as people celebrate the holiday at home. Similarly, Taco Bell will share recipe cards from its secretive Test Kitchen so that quarantined consumers can make rare menu items from the past.
Meanwhile, Campbell is experiencing a lift in sales as retailers and consumers stock up canned foods in response to the coronavirus epidemic. The sales bump have mostly offset a decline in the company's food service unit, The Street reported.
