hamburger helper branded content analysis
TRANSCRIPT
Brands Doing Content Right
Davis Mastin
Hamburger Helper’s Problem:
• Consumers no longer thought of Hamburger Helper as a go-to option for food.
• Proof point: In 2005, Food Network named it the “Number 3 Food Fad of the 70s”
Another Issue: The Competition Had Strong, Culturally Relevant Social Media Content…
Chobani Instagram Oreo Instagram
…On Nearly Every Platform
Taco Bell Twitter Denny’s Twitter
The Opportunity + Solution:
Create content for this old and forgotten brand that will not only help it stand out on a wide array of saturated social mediums, but also last beyond the average life of a standard social media post.
So How Do You Measure The Effectiveness of Branded Content?
Adobe Has 5 Characteristics For Vetting Branded Content:
1. Interesting
2. Entertaining
3. Engaging
4. Free
5. Spreadable
The branded content idea: make something different, yet relevant, to the target audience on the perfect day for brands to take risks: April Fool’s Day.
On April Fool’s Day 2016, this image started circulating across social media. It almost broke the Internet.
The reason it went viral: It closely resembled the award-winning rap album “Watch the Throne”
Commonly found on the front of rap albums
The foil (necessary to cook Hamburger Helper) resembled the background of “Watch the Throne”
Even the album names were similarHelper“Watch The Stove”
Jay-Z and Kanye West“Watch The Throne”
Interesting
Report Card
Comments: Not only has a food brand never made a hip-hop based mix-tape, but Hamburger Helper was perhaps the last brand Millennials would expect to do this. It was interesting enough for them to ”click” a tweet, a post, or an article and see what was going on.
The next phase: make something that’s entertaining, not advertising.
But what made this so entertaining?
They parodied hip-hop jargon really well...
“I’ve been in the kitchen, whippin’ whippin’, I’ve been chefin’…”
…or basically anything in pop culture.
“Sit back and relax, I Netflix and chill with the meal…”
“Belly poking out, feeling all heavy, Chasing these meals feeling so Chevy…”
They even poked fun at themselves, too.
“All these haters salty, I’m too seasoned.” -DJ Tiiiiiiiiiip
Entertaining
Report Card
Comments: This rap album wasn’t just click bait; it was bona fide entertainment. From the high-quality 808 beats to the clever idioms that hip-hop junkies and pop culture enthusiasts of all ages could appreciate, Watch the Stove kept listeners on their toes.
Watch the Stove was entertaining. But it would be nothing without engagement.
Things disappear fast on social media.So it needed to spread fast.
Hamburger Helper accompanied the album with support from its social media accounts.
Engaging
Report Card
Comments: Rather than creating a social media advertising campaign that involved clever, yet ephemeral, social media posts, Hamburger Helper wisely used their accounts to humorously raise awareness and promote their branded content.
Once Hamburger Helper engaged with consumers, they had to make sure they could access it.
By putting the album on Soundcloud, consumers could access it for free.
This is important because putting music on easily accessible platforms is a hot-button issue.
For example, Kanye West got a lot of flack for only releasing The Life of Pablo on Tidal earlier this spring.
Free
Report Card
Comments: Very few brands – let alone brands in this category – are able to create customer engagement through making consumers pay for their branded content. Hamburger Helper was smart to not only make their album free, but put it on platform that could easily be embedded to share on a variety of mediums for enthusiastic fans to share among friends.
Add it all up, and you’ve got a viral campaign.
Free
Report Card
Comments: Satirical music and music videos that were unique, entertaining, and shareable led to the brand trending on nearly every social media site on a day so many brands were competing for attention.
Report Card Interesting
Entertaining
Free
Engaging
Spreadable