We’ve already talked about how social media can be a food brand’s best friend. Pinterest, toted as today’s most highly visual platform, is taking the food industry by storm. With it’s visual focus and ability to instantly connect users with recipe inspiration, cooking tips and creative approaches to meal prep, Pinterest is a foodie’s paradise. Similary, YouTube can be just as strategic of a tool if used as part of a larger marketing plan. We often recommend incorporating it into our clients’ social media marketing strategies when we feel that their products and services lend themselves well to a video platform.
Kraft, one of the food industry’s powerhouses, established the Kraft Cooking School channel on YouTube in 2007. Housing tons of recipes, three minute how-to videos with cooking tricks and entertainment tips and inspiration, it’s a one-stop shop for making tastier meals for your family. The foundation of Kraft’s channel is not focused on its products. Rather, the channel is built upon the greater strategy of empowering at-home cooks.
Green Giant foods, known better as the Jolly Green Giant, uses its YouTube channel to house commercials and as the platform for their Giant Surprise Talent search, as well as recipes. But more importantly, especially for a food brand, the channel takes viewers on a tour of the farms and valleys where Green Giant foods originate. From the growing process to when the products depart the farm packaged and ready for retail, these videos connect viewers with a story that is more than what you find on the grocery store shelf.
Gatorade, the most world-renowned sports drink, uses their YouTube channel, What’s G?, to showcase their incredibly motivational commercials, as well as interviews with professional and collegiate athletes. The channel also features commentaries on high-profile sporting events such as the Super Bowl and NCAA March Madness. In keeping with their overall image and message of the drink that will help you perform at the elite level of professional athletes, What’s G? leaves viewers with the motivation and inspiration run their fastest and play their hardest.
Whether your brand is a sports drink, frozen vegetables or everything under the sun, a YouTube channel, if used effectively, can be a powerful tool in your marketing strategy. Allowing your consumers the opportunity to take a peek inside the brand and put a face and voice with the brand allows a stronger connection and loyalty to your products.
