In a crowded multichannel marketing landscape, Kraft Foods made the inspired decision to execute on its fundamental insight—that simple foods, and simple acts, make for a better life. And in doing so, Kraft took the leap into a new kind of cause marketing: The Recipe for Joy program removed product purchase requirements while engaging consumers in a way that was intricately connected to Kraft’s DNA — providing recipes to loved ones while putting food on the table for everyone. During the 2009 holiday season (11/15-12/31), Kraft Foods partnered with American Greetings to donate 10 meals to Feeding America for every e-card sent, up to 1,000,000 meals.Good food + Good deeds + You = Recipe for Joy.

Kraft Foods has developed one of the leading CRM programs in the world, integrating magazines, websites, emails, mobile, social media, database, videos and advocacy in the US and Canada. The Recipe for Joy program came to life by leveraging its branded assets, including Food & Family magazine, and maximising its media credits with ads in People magazine and a Hallmark movie sponsorship. As part of the sponsorship, Hallmark developed custom segments featuring movie talent to deliver the Recipe for Joy message and encourage viewers to help fight hunger. Additional branded entertainment on Home Shopping Network (HSN) and HSN.com also increased campaign awareness.Kraft Foods also reached out to its advocacy consumer group, allowing this highly engaged audience early access to the program, and executed an online media plan—complete with digital display ads and search tactics. Additional push messaging included email campaigns and social components, including Twitter and blogger engagement.

Recipe for Joy exceeded expectations —driving a total of 220,000 e-cards sends by 155,000 unique users, two times Kraft Foods’ initial goal. Recipe for Joy quickly exceeded its 1,000,000 meal donation goal based on e-card sends, prompting Kraft to increase its contribution goal. As a result of the campaign, Kraft Foods donated:- 2,199,480 meals to Feeding America.- Total impressions of 53.6MMThe campaign’s send rate was 39.3%, more than four times American Greeting’s benchmark of 8%. Recipe for Joy users also demonstrated high levels of engagement as evidenced by strong click-through rates and widget download rates following the e-card experience.