Apr 1, 2009

Say "Cheese"!

Good cheese makes me smile. The same happens with good marketing. Thanks to Ile de France my smile is even bigger now, because they managed to do a great mouth-to-mouth campaign and it involves cheese, one of my favorites things in the world.

Normally, when I talk with small/medium companies about the power of web 2.0 I try to give examples that are reachable for them. Medium companies can't compare to Dove or Procter & Gamble so they need examples of what can be done through blogs, Twitter, FaceBook or LinkedIn that doesn't involve millions and millions of dollars and three advertising agencies working for them. This campaign is an excellent example.

Ile de France do have great cheeses. They probably know that if you are a cheese lover and you try their products you will want more and probably become a fan of the brand. So they managed to do a sampling at home using a foodies website as the media to invite cheese lovers to participate.

TasteSpotting (the website I am talking about) is in some way what I call a "curated crowdsourcing" site, meaning that most of their content comes from users. They still pick and choose what they published but a large part of what they have comes from "food bloggers"

Now, TasteSpotting is in Twitter and they used that media to let their followers know that this opportunity to sign up for a sample of an Ile de France cheese was available. Common sense indicates that most of tastespotting's followers are also food lovers that enjoy talking about food, blogging about food and experimenting with food, so the target for the campaign was spot on.

I signed up and totally forgot about it, until last week I received my cheese (an unbelievable good goat cheese) with a letter from Ile de France announcing their upcoming recipe contest.

We simply loved the cheese and it will be in my shopping list from now on. But they have managed to get me involved with the brand way more than if I had tried a sample size at the supermarket: I was so impressed by the cheese that I went to their website (where I learned that this goat cheese received the Chef's Award for "Best Taste" last year as well as a couple of things on how to store it for better conservation), I signed up for their promos and -last but not least- here I am talking about their cheeses.

This is real, possible and affordable marketing through web 2.0. Ile de France is not in Tweeter but they managed to be in Twitter. They do not blog but they managed to successfully connect with bloggers and the right ones, those who can appreciate a good cheese. They didn't have to create a whole new site or spend tons of money but they will probably achieve a mouth-to-mouth buzz that is worth the investment.

Now I have to go. An excellent goat cheese is waiting for me in the kitchen; it wants to be paired with good prosciutto and I am already salivating with a big grin in my face.

PS: If you are creative in the kitchen, you may want to enter the their contest. Create a recipe with one of their cheeses and send it with a picture or a video to recipe@iledefrancecheese.com before April 29th, 2009. You can win from $500 in cash to $100 in cheeses.

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