An old hand at Facebook campaigns, Sara Lee has launched its latest initiative on the channel. Called "Life’s Not Perfect…But Your Deli Meat Can Be", it is based on a series of videos created with Second City Communications.
The funny videos capture milestones in the life of three buys women - like her child's first day of school - with unexpected outcomes. With women - mothers, in particular - the main purchasers of groceries, it is little wonder that Sara Lee is aiming its marketing firepower at women.
A Sensitive Nerve
As part of its campaign it conducted a survey that flicked a sensitive nerve among women - being perfect - in this case, the perfect mother. The survey, the company explained, aimed to identify how women struggle when it comes to creating perfect meals and sandwiches.
It found that only 55% of American women would eat a meal they created for a special occasion if it didn't come out the way they expected. Also, 60% U.S. women who ever make deli sandwiches at home struggle with some aspect of making the perfect sandwich and 35% have trouble coming up with more creative deli sandwiches. And finally, 95% of U.S. women spend at least one hour preparing the perfect meal for their family and friends.
The Ragu Dads
Increasingly, though, such gender-specific targeting comes at a risk. Ragu learned this lesson recently with its own Facebook campaign called Mom's the Word on Dinner - a campaign that implied that dads are less competent than moms in the kitchen. It is a video featuring mommy bloggers describing what it's like when their husbands cook dinner.
After the expected line of dishes - grilling or breakfast fare - the message becomes with 'Ragu's easy recipes they can increase their repetoire.' "On the surface, it's certainly annoying that Ragu doesn't recognize dads are more involved than ever with their kids, but I think the bigger issue was how they used Twitter to get the word out," Relevant Marketer, which flagged the campaign, wrote in a blog post. "Apparently they messaged a bunch of people who they knew were dads and had blogs and active social media profiles." Not all of the recipients found it so funny and some responded with negative comments.
