Dive Brief:

• Sargento is introducing aged cheeses to its offerings as part of a new Reserve Series. To spotlight the launch, the cheese brand is offering a free pizza deal on April 29. However, it will take four to 18 months to be delivered, in line with the cheese ages, according to a company announcement shared with Marketing Dive.
• Ogilvy created a themed campaign, "The World's Slowest Pizza Delivery with Sargento," to highlight the extended time it takes for this cheese collection to age. In a video, Sargento explains how long each cheese in the line takes to age to flavor fullness. The pizza delivery wait time will reflect the type of cheese on the pie. Orders can be placed via microsite SlowestPizzaDelivery.com, created specially for the campaign.
• Consumers can track the progress of their delivery date via the website and also watch live footage of cheese aging. Sargento's free pizza offer is limited to the first 100 orders within a Chicago delivery area, and will be prepared by local restaurant Big G's Pizza. For those who don't make the cut, the pizza recipes can be found on Sargento​'s website.

Dive Insight:

Sargento's Ogilvy-crafted campaign gives a creative spin to giveaways and free deliveries in a way that highlights the value-add of the Reserve Series cheeses. Pizza chains like Domino's and Pizza Hut have used the promise of free pies to generate buzz and drum up awareness around a new product, as Sargento similarly is doing with its "World's Slowest Pizza Delivery." The delayed delivery underscores the age statements on the new cheese line, emphasizing a quality not usually expected in the shredded cheese category. At the same time, the extended wait adds a novelty element to the campaign and boosts customers' anticipation of the pie's arrival.

The campaign is an interesting contrast to consumer demand for immediate gratification, as retailers vie to make home deliveries of everything from produce to pet foods within hours. Sargento's campaign also nods to the Slow Food Movement which addresses the methods the world uses to produce and consume food.

Sargento's launch of the Reserve Series of cheeses addresses a growing demand by consumers for higher quality and artisan foods, and could lure a more discriminating buyer into the category. The shredded cheese section has become a price-driven battleground and is rife with private labels. Sargento's new Reserve Series adds to the brand's existing 20-plus shredded cheese varieties and could help the brand stand out against other cheese innovations this year.

Taco Bell recently introduced a shredded cheese collection and Kraft drew headlines with the elimination of rBST milk from its Kraft Natural Cheese brand. The growth hormone is often used to increase milk production in cows.