How do you announce the biggest change in a beloved brand’s 80-year history?

By not saying a word.

Kraft Mac & Cheese wanted to introduce their new recipe featuring no artificial ingredients. But change is scary. Especially when it comes to an American icon. So we made the product change virtually indiscernible on-pack, while going dark in all media for three months. During that time, consumers purchased 50MM boxes of the new recipe and virtually no one noticed a difference in taste. Only then did we announce we’d pulled off the World’s Largest Blind Taste Test.

The Challenge:

Ensure Kraft Mac & Cheese got credit for changing its ingredients to no artificial flavors, preservatives or dyes without alienating the brand’s loyal fan base.

The Idea:

Kraft Mac & Cheese is new and not improved. We launched the World’s Largest Blind Taste Test, selling the new product in the old box without telling anyone to prove that nobody would notice the change.

The Results:

Outperformed all of our KPI’s. The first month of the paid media campaign saw an increase in sales of 11%. This was followed by two additional months of positive sales pushing the business to be up 6% over this same period last year.