Kraft gives moms a storybook ending

Kraft Peanut Butter is doubling down on family values with a new piece of online-only branded content.

The four-minute video tells the story of the Goldberg family, focusing on Deborah, a busy mom who juggles a work-from-home event planning job and raising two young daughters.

After filming the family for two weeks, Kraft partnered with children’s author Paulette Bourgeois (known for her Franklin the Turtle stories) to create an original children’s story about Deborah and her family. Deborah was invited to do a reading of the book with her friends and family, without being told what it was about.

“It didn’t dawn on her until about halfway through the book, when she tripped on the fact that her daughters names were in it,” said Amy Rawlinson, director of marketing for Kraft Peanut Butter. “And then she looked out and saw her sister crying, and her kids in the audience — it was just so beautiful and moving.”

The video, created by Taxi 2 and StudioM, is part of Kraft’s “Stick Together” brand platform, which launched last year with an ad about a girl growing up with a stuffed Peanut Butter Bear. To capitalize on the campaign’s success, Kraft began selling the iconic bears on StickTogether.ca.

http://youtu.be/r_Qsr4Kp0fw

A similar followup is planned for “Storytime.” Kraft intends to offer a service where families can create their own personalized storybooks about mom. Rawlinson said the product will be promoted online, with ads targeting young dads looking for a Mother’s Day gift.

She said her team has been working hard to develop the brand’s family-focused values, and build affinity with new parents in the 24-35 age bracket. The project involved extensive market research to hone in on what young parents care about, and how to connect with them.

She said it was important “Storytime” be authentic. “It wasn’t just about an emotional video, it wasn’t doing a Westjet piece or the Budweiser puppy spot. For us it was really tapping into human emotion and real visceral responses,” she said. “We didn’t cast for this, we didn’t find actors. We actually found a family, through our focus groups, that were a living embodiment of our brand’s conviction.”

The YouTube video will be promoted on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, AOL BeOn and Brightroll. The media plan, led by Starcom MediaVest, will not include any non-digital media. Rawlinson said she didn’t want to dilute the experience by cutting the video down to a 60-sec TV spot.

This article first appeared in Marketing Magazine