Kraft Dinner

The Objective

Winning over food lovers with bold new flavours

For over 85 years, Kraft Dinner (KD) macaroni and cheese has been bringing smiles to many as the leading Canadian packaged dry macaroni and cheese. And while most Canadians grew up enjoying KD macaroni and cheese, as they got older, they started seeking out new and complex taste experiences. Kraft Heinz wanted to win back those audiences, so it introduced a line of bold, edgy flavour variations of its classic macaroni and cheese. TikTok has a strong community of engaged Gen Z and millennials, making it the ideal place to engage its target audience and increase awareness of the new and exciting KD Flavour Cups with its largest media investment yet.

The Solution

Going big and bold with TopFeed, In-Feed Ads, and Voting Stickers

The new and exciting Kraft Dinner Flavour Cups pack a big punch with one-of-a-kind flavours like Spicy Buffalo, Jalapeno, and an oh-so-Canadian favourite, Poutine. But with all the bold new flavours, it begs the question, which one is best? With a focus on awareness and engagement, Kraft Heinz introduced the tastes with a flavour debate that was as heated and cheesy as the cups themselves.

Kraft Heinz encouraged the TikTok community to join in on the fun by sharing their voices in the #KDFlavourDebate . To reach Gen Z and millennial food lovers far and wide, Kraft Heinz partnered with various well-known TikTok creators to get the word out. Creators like @bomanizer, @ehbeefamily, and @danshaba introduced the new flavours and chose a side while putting their unique TikTok-first spin on the debate. The creator-led content increased awareness of the recipes while also encouraging engagement from the community, posing the question, “are you #TeamFlavour or #TeamOriginal?”

Meanwhile, Kraft Heinz concocted the perfect ad recipe to meet its awareness and engagement goals: TopFeed, In-Feed Ads, and Voting Stickers. TopFeed is a new solution with customized targeting and greater control that places videos in the first In-Feed ad slot when users open the app and start their For You feed journey. TopFeed is a new product, just a few months old, making Kraft Dinner macaroni and cheese one of the first CPG brands to activate the new product in Canada. The ad solution ensured top of awareness at scale by allowing Kraft Heinz to kick off the food campaign with fixed reach, frequency, and impressions, while also allowing the brand to use Voting Stickers to enhance engagement.

The Voting Sticker Interactive Add-on allows brands like Kraft Dinner to add a voting topic and two options within a video ad to increase user engagement and collect information. For campaigns like #KDFlavourDebate, Voting Stickers invite users to participate in conversations for increased engagement in ways otherwise unattainable. In the ads, Kraft Dinner macaroni and cheese leaned into native trends by using the TikTok eyes and mouth filter to bring the products to life with a personality all their own as they went head-to-head in the original vs. flavour debate.

Lastly, Kraft Heinz used In-Feed Ads to show up in an authentic way on the platform and further engagement with its target audience.

The Results

Oozing with brand love

New flavour or not, who doesn't love Kraft Dinner macaroni and cheese? And after a cheesy chowdown throwdown, we know one thing for sure — it's all good! Regardless of which side they chose, TikTok users united in their desire to participate, engage, and show some brand love for “Canada's official, unofficial national food.”

Kraft Heinz set out to increase awareness and engagement, and the food campaign did exactly that, cooking up over 24 million total impressions with a 4.5% engagement rate plus, TopFeed delivering a 23% 2-sec view rate, and an overall campaign 2-sec view rate of over 12%. Moreover, a post-campaign brand lift study showed a 15.1% increase in awareness and a 28.4% increase in ad recall, both significantly exceeding industry benchmarks. Pretty tasty!