KRAFT Macaroni & Cheese had been a staple in most American’s pantries since 1937. However, a series of advertising campaigns that started in the 1970s positioned it as a food for kids. Over time, grown-ups didn’t give it much thought.

So, we launched the 'You know you love it' campaign, featuring the iconic macaroni noodle. It reminded adults of the taste they knew they loved. But nearly 40 years of kids’ advertising couldn’t be reversed overnight, so we were constantly searching for ways to keep this 75-year-old brand current.

When we came across a YouTube video of Ted Williams, a homeless man with a Golden Voice, we saw an opportunity to give a man down on his luck a second chance. What better way to remain relevant than by aligning with culture? Less than 48 hours after the video of Ted went viral, we cast him as our TV voiceover talent.

Ted’s story inspired us, but we had to move quickly to connect with him. It was Wednesday, January 5th at 9am, and we wanted Ted to record the voiceover for the Kraft Macaroni & Cheese spot airing four days later in the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl, as well as the new creative we were debuting during the Golden Globes the following week. We had 36 hours to:• Get Kraft approval• Find Ted and ask him to be our voiceover talent• Activate Public Relations support• Get Ted to announce his new job while he was live on the Today Show • Record Ted• Finish the commercials• Edit a ‘making of’ video for the press and YouTube• Ship a commercial to ESPN for that Sunday’s Kraft Fight Hunger bowl gameAnd we executed the plan flawlessly.

In the first 2 days after Ted Williams was hired, Kraft and Ted Williams garnered nearly 289m earned media impressions from national, online and print coverage. During the first week he was cast as our voiceover talent, Kraft Macaroni & Cheese experienced almost a 600% increase in brand buzz. The percentage of KRAFT-specific 'mac & cheese' online conversations (share of voice) went from 2.46% the year prior to 10.88% - the highest the brand has had to-date. Ted’s first commercial, 'Dad’s in the Doghouse' got nearly 700,000 views from January 9-16, 2011 making it the #6 most-viewed YouTube video that week.