Oreo Separator machine

The Oreo Separator Machine - Original blog post 3

Oreo kicked off their “Cookies and Crème” marketing campaign during the Super Bowl with the “Whisper Fight” commercial and an Instagram promotion ( oreo to fans;cookie or creme ). Oreo asked fans to submit artwork using the hashtags #cookiethis or #cremethis. The artwork was used to create sculptures which were photographed and loaded onto Instagram. The promotion received 32,000+ submissions. Susan Burris, Brand Manager for Oreo, was quoted as saying that Oreo was “launching an engagement experience”. She also said that before the Super Bowl Oreo had 2,200 Instagram followers and 15 seconds after they had 22,000 Instagram followers.

The latest installment in the advertising campaign, titled the Oreo Separator Machine, was released on 3/4/13. The mini-mockumentary created by Weiden and Kennedy stars David Neevel, a "physicist" and copy writer, with his Oreo Separator machine. The deadpan Neevel is funny in this long commercial format with absurd themes reminiscent of the Blendtec viral video. The video has had 2.6 million views on Youtube. It has also been picked up by the mainstream media with 3600 citations in Google news. The media echoed the punchines in the video; it took .04 years (2 weeks) to create the machine, Neevel’s dislike of crème etc… In contrast to the Instagram campaign cited above, the Oreo Separator Machine is similar to a traditional broadcast commercial albeit in a narrowcast medium.

The Oreo Separator Machine commercial had decent sentiment numbers but weak strength, passion and reach ratings.

The Instagram engagement experience had good strength, reach and sentiment ratings though weak passion.

This quick, limited comparison demonstrates the power of engaging customers compared to traditional advertising in Social Media. However, it is likely that Oreo has a multi-faceted approach including traditional advertising and new modes of social media engagement. The Oreo Separator Machine ad was targeted at the large end of the Marketing Funnel, Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff, Groundswell; Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies. The goal was to create awareness and generate additional eyeballs for the brand. It was complemented by a public relations campaign. It was targeted at spectators and joiners on Li and Bernoff's Technographic ladder. The Instagram contest was targeted at the middle of the Marketing Funnel. The objective was to influence consideration, preference, action and loyalty. It was targeted at the creator rung of the ladder and gave "regular people" the chance to engage with the brand and each other. By utilizing complementary strategies Oreo was able to influence the whole Funnel.

Icerocket found 66 blog posts in the 48 hours after the Oreo Separator Machine ad was released and the ad was averaging 26.2 tweets per hour. The effort generated internet conversation. 

The Tweetgrid below underlines another key challenge for the Ad  in comparison to the Instagram contest. The Instagram promotion was launced during the Super Bowl with its 108 million viewers.

 While the ad has not been as successful as other Oreo marketing efforts, I suspect that the brand will settle for the brand awareness that was generated.