Albertsons, Kraft Brew Digital-first McCafe Launch Promo

Albertsons and Kraft have brewed up a piping-hot digital and social campaign to support the launch of the new McCafe coffee line across its family of 1,081 multibanner stores, including Acme Markets, Albertsons, Jewel-Osco, Shaw's and Star Market.

The “Show Us Your Best Mug!” promotion, which launched this week and runs through Jan. 5, will award daily winners with a year's supply of McCafe coffee. Customers can enter Albertsons' "Best Mug" promotion by uploading a picture of their favorite coffee mug.

While Albertsons has been an industry leader in utilizing digital and social amplification to support its shopper marketing initiatives, its "Best Mug" alliance with Kraft marks the first time the grocer has worked directly with a CPG vendor for a large-scale, fully integrated campaign, explains Karl Meinhardt, VP of social & digital marketing for Boise-based Albertsons LLC.

"We are supporting the campaign with a digital-first, omni-channel approach," notes Meinhardt, which includes robust reinforcement "on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest, as well as via email, our website, targeted displays and social advertising campaigns."

In addition to the digital, social and in-store merchandising components, Albertsons' innovative "Best Mug" shopper marketing platform, adds Meinhardt, is further supported by user-generated content “wrapped around the new product launch" to drive awareness, trial and sales.

"Kraft has been a great partner for us [to spearhead] a broad, relevant, targeted campaign that not only fully embraces digital, social and mobile channels, but also off-platform displays, blogger campaigns and dedicated content," says Meinhardt.

While the campaign's digital-first focus represents a decided shift for an industry that's long relied on traditional methods to launch a new product predicated on one-dimensional ad circulars, Meinhardt is confident that user-generated omnichannel campaigns are here to stay. "It makes the advertising and marketing message way more real and way more effective for all parties."