What Pops With Mom:  How An Established Brand Made New Connections With Today's Moms

During the 2008 M2Moms-The Marketing To Moms Conference Stephanie Moritz, director of public relations for ConAgra Foods and Pamela Von Lehmden, SVP/director of Midwest brand and food practice for Ketchum, were awarded with the M2Moms® Full Circle Award—an award created to honor those brands that have attended M2Moms® in the past and have successfully implemented what they learned from the conference. Their success story: Orville Redenbacher’s “Girls Night In” campaign.

Stephanie recently spoke with Patti Minglin about the success of the campaign and how speaking to moms as individuals—not just mothers or women—is can be the key to connection.

Minglin: Tell us a little about the “Girls Night In” campaign.
Moritz: Orville Redenbacher’s Gourmet Popping Corn recognized that spending time with her girlfriends is important to every FeMom, which is a current trend in marketing to women that tells us that women like to be communicated to not only as household managers or mothers, but as individuals with many interests. Most FeMoms have a dedicated evening, whether weekly or monthly, set aside to do just this.  
 
Research showed us that TV-watching is a common “girls night” activity. With the September launch of Orville Redenbacher’s newest Natural flavor, Lime & Salt, ConAgra took advantage of television premiere season to encourage women to host their own “Girls’ Night In” event, complete with Orville Redenbacher’s new Lime & Salt popcorn. Working with agency of record Ketchum and national party partner House Party, Inc., we hosted 1,000 “Girls Night In” parties on one night in consumers’ homes across the U.S. To get the ball rolling, we made Orville.com a Girls Night In party planning resource and provided some celebrity inspiration.

Minglin: What marketing channels did you use and did any of those channels out perform your expectations?

Moritz: Orville Redenbacher partnered with NBC’s Lipstick Jungle and Maybelline New York to throw 1,000 “Girls Night In” parties. Each party had an average of 14 attendees, so 14,000 women spent more than three hours of intimate hand-on-brand time with Orville Redenbacher’s popcorn, while watching the season premiere of Lipstick Jungle two weeks before it aired. In addition, the House Party recruitment process, the web site created for party hostesses and guests to share their experiences, and personal blog postings by hostesses resulted in nearly 1 million women being exposed to the brand’s message.  In addition to in-home parties, Orville Redenbacher’s hosted a celebrity “Girls’ Night In” Event at the home of celebrity mom Poppy Montgomery, to celebrate friend and costar Rosalyn Sanchez’s upcoming wedding. This celebrity party exceeded expectations as many high profile guests enjoyed the newest flavor of Natural popcorn, were introduced to the brand, and the team secured two exclusives for the event with entertainment media – one with OK! Magazine and the other with Entertainment Tonight. Additionally, the deluxe party favor bag was featured in US Weekly to be used for a readers’ sweepstakes. In total, the party garnered almost 15 million media impressions in target-right media outlets.  The party planning theme was expanded upon by partnering with well-known party planner Jo Gartin to deliver exclusive web content and party tips to visitors to orville.com, and via a media tour. Overall, the campaign resulted in nearly 100 million media impressions and improved market share for the Orville Redenbacher’s brand.

Minglin: What insights did you gain during M2Moms®-The Marketing To Moms Conference 2007 that helped in the development of this campaign?

Moritz: Women like to be communicated to not only as household managers or mothers, but as individuals with many interests. She is more than just mom! In this case, Mom also is a girlfriend who values her relationships and makes spending time with her friends a priority. Giving her tools and ideas on how to make that time more valuable is important to attracting and keeping her very limited attention when she can think about herself.
 
Minglin: Why do you think this campaign has resonated so well with women—especially moms?
Moritz: Moms value their friendships but are not often spoken to and marketed to as girlfriends; rather many companies communicate to them only as moms. Acknowledging that mom is more than just a mom and that her friendships are important to her is important to providing her with value from a trusted brand. Moms wear many hats and connecting with friends was an ideal intersection for both Orville Redenbacher’s and moms.
 
Minglin: Based on the challenges and opportunities you have discovered, what advice do you have for other well-established brands looking to create or change their relationship with moms?

Moritz: Get to know your consumer and what is important to her. While we found that spending time with friends is very important to moms, research revealed that they have very little time to do so and even less time to plan for it. Therefore, an integral part of our campaign was providing women with ideas for how to make time with friends as well as what to do once they are together.  Orville Redenbacher's new Lime & Salt popcorn helped moms create a fun event and reason to get together with her friends.

Minglin: Thank you, Stephanie—I can’t wait to host my own “Girls Night In”