Introducing the Fiber One Chewy Bar: Driving Awareness and Sales Through Blog and Influencer-Based Outreach

Situation:

General Mills introduced its newest product, Fiber One Chewy Bars. The company wanted to publicize the product via online avenues to raise awareness of the brand and encourage purchase.

Challenges:
- Distinguish the Fiber One Chewy Bars as tasty fiber supplement snack bar in an over-saturated snack bar market.
- Execute campaign without an informational web site from the client

Audience:

Health-conscious women interested in getting more fiber into their diets

Strategy:

- Assemble a target list of 125 blogs and message board influencers in relevant subject categories
- Craft an individualized pitch text
- Conduct outreach through succinct, personalized correspondence with inquiry, confirmation, follow-up and coordination.
- Monitor coverage throughout the campaign while constantly following up with potentially receptive bloggers.

Results:

- Secured 84 online placements; 41 from direct outreach and 43 from the viral effect of the original posts.
- Images, brand messaging and product reviews appeared on sites such as Diet-Blog.com, FitSugar.com and Hungry-Girl.com
- Images, brand messaging and product reviews appeared on message board forums at sites such as Calorie-Count.com, iVillage.com and MarthaStewart.com
- Generated more than 2.5 million online impressions
- Placements dominated 75% of the top search results on Google, Technorati, and Yahoo when searching for the term "Fiber One Chewy Bars"
- Internet traffic concerning the product increased an average of 400% during the length of the campaign
- Five months after the campaign wrap-up, seven of the top ten results on Google for the term "Fiber One Chewy Bars" are a direct result of outreach

Credit Information
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Client: General Mills
Agency: Manning, Selvage & Lee Digital (MS&L Digital)
Budget: $25,000
Date of Campaign: January - March 2007