SMMC Project

Oreo Social Media Monitoring Project

Denis Dynan

Social Media & Marketing Communications

February 2013

The Oreo cookie brand has a long established and profitable history. Here are some facts from the Oreo Fact Sheet .

The Oreo brand was introduced to the American public March, 6, 1912.

Oreos are the best selling cookie of the 20th century.

Oreo generated ~ $1.5 Billion revenue in 2012.

Oreos can be found in 100 countries.

Oreo has a street named after it in New York City called Oreo Way where the first cookie was made.

Twist, Lick, Dunk ritual; 50% of all oreo eaters pull apart their cookies. (This is a reocurring advertising theme).

Memorable advertising slogans through the years include;

1950 - Oh! Oh! Oreo

1986 - Who's the kid with the Oreo?

1990 - Oreo the original twister cookie?

2004 - Oreo Milks favorite cookie

Kraft recently split the company into 2 separate organizations as described in a Morningstar article . Oreo has been assigned to the new Mondelez (Spanish for delicious) (~ $34 Billion) organization. According to the article the focus of this new entity is Global sales and the companies business strategy was chacterized as low margin, high growth.

A presentation given by Beth Reilly, Linkedin Profile, Global Digital Strategy lead for Mondelez International, lays out Oreos social media strategy. The presentation was given 8/11/2010 so it is somewhat dated though still insightful. Her presentation, one of many, on the topic How Big Brands use Social Media was given at the McDonalds Hamburger University. It was sponsored by Gaspedal and the Social Media Business Council . The title was How Oreo learned to fish where the fish are.

Here are some of the key points from her demonstration and from answers she provided to industry representatives from Fidelity, Allstate, Dell etc;

1) Facebook is now the key focus for all of Oreos marketing communications. All print, on line advertising, TV commercials etc are directed to Oreos Facebook page.

2) Oreos Facebook page is rapidly replacing Oreos URL as the brand destination.

3) "Moms are our target" population. I'd add that Oreo is targeting Moms through their children. For instance the Oreo Counting Book is targeted to children 2 and up.

4) Oreo is a social cookie with passionate customers. Its is third in Social Media mention behind Starbucks and Coke. She cited numbers from Famecount .

5) Oreo views their Facebook page as a way to entertain, inform and engage customers.

6) Oreo does not directly measure ROI based on Social media metrics. Rather they view Social Media as a long term brand advocacy strategy.

7) Oreo does not see the need to engage with every customer that asks a question. In fact with 28 million facebook fans there are too many comments. They are happy to see the community answer most questions.

8) Oreo does not engage in deep learning from customer engagement. She said Oreo has the world's largest focus group that they are not utilizing.


I searched Social Mention for aggregated internet user generated content regarding Oreo cookies. My first search was simply for Oreo.

The search shows that the brand has an extensive reach and great sentiment but is currently weak with little passion.

Oreo Social Mention search

Oreo Fan of the Week Social Mention search

One of Oreos intersting Facebook promotions is the Oreo Fan of the week. This effort encourages engagement and has been well received. However, it shows trends similiar to the search above. Extended reach with more neutral comments and weak results.

Oreo Whisper Fight Social Mention search

The Oreo Whisper Fight super Bowl commercial displays strong sentiment but, again weak ratings, little passion and less reach.

The Google Trends graph below demonstrates product strength every December. Oreos are searched for extensively during the Holiday season. The only other peak strength event ocurred in 3/2012 when Oreo kicked off the brands 100th "birthday" celebration.

The graph below depicts worldwide search activity for Oreo in 2012. The 1st spike occurs in 3/2012 when Oreo turned 100. The second spike occurs when Oreo kicked off their highly successful Daily Twist campaign which featured a new Oreo cookie per day and is detailed in  New York Times - Daily Twist article .

 

Representative Tweets

Oreo Cookie‏Verified account@Oreo

We're the cookie that all your friends talk about and Milk wants to dunk with. We're serving up tweets guaranteed to make you want to Twist, Lick, and Dunk.

Alfredo Flores‏@AlfredoFlores

So many Oreos and soooo many Freddo bars. I can't even eat anymore. Thank you! #LOVE

Andrea Avendaño‏@heeyitsandrea_

I like you so much, I'd share my Oreos with you

Honest Toddler‏@HonestToddler

You think flour says "I want to be a scone when I grow up?" No. They dream of greatness. Churros. Frozen waffles. Oreo cookies.

Retweeted 865 times 

          

Given the long term success of the Oreo brand and passionate social media following it is challenging to critique their strategy. However, every business has challenges and opportunities.  Some of my observations are;

1) The company tends to employ Facebook similiar to advertising as a broadcast medium. They focus on entertainment and information rather than engagement.

2) There are exceptions such as the Fan of the week campaign, 100th anniversary celebrations, Daily Twist campaign and Super Bowl Dunk in the Dark Tweet.

3) The Whisper Fight commercial strikes me as contrived by Oreo to create tension or comedy.  A top down approach which has generated little passion.

4) With 28 Million fans and successful social media campaigns Oreo has difficult record to live up to. The company will only turn 100 once and Super Bowl blackouts are rare. The brand needs to continually reinvent itself to be relevant.

5) There are opportunities beyond Facebook such as Pinterest, Youtube, Flickr and Instagram. There are also opportunities to engage with the middle of the marketing funnel.