Three Minds On Digital Marketing @ Organic

Meals Together is branded entertainment site for the food brands of the Clorox Company- KC Masterpiece, Hidden Valley Ranch, Kingsford Charcoal, Glad.  Keeping the brands relevant is a tough strategic challenge for a company better known for its cleaning products- even their corporate website shows a bleach bottle wiping grimy handprints from a bathtub.

So the soft sell of “here’s how to have more meals at home” is a smart approach.  The site is actually pretty light in terms of video content, but clever uses of cuts and smart use of factoids as interstitials makes the site appear richer and deeper in content than it actually is.

On the other hand, I think the sitcom vision of the family – White, two perfect kids, fat, dopey dad and skinny, too-attractive-for-him wife – is getting pretty tired.  Admittedly the site is trying to resurrect the Norman Rockwell vision of meals at home, but something closer to real people would have been nice.

I’m not in the target demo, but it’s hard not to wonder if the housewife at home on her PC wouldn’t find the experience…boring.  Our own research shows that these kinds of women look to the Web as an escape at the end of the day, after the kids have gone to bed.  In keeping with this finding, Georgia Pacific and Unilever have taken much more light-hearted, entertaining, and dare I say viral approaches to reaching women. Meals Together was developed by Tribal DDB San Francisco.  Thanks to Organic alumnus Kristian Schwartz.

Misha Cornes