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KitchenAid is turning to a Web video series to mark its new product launch.
The company’s new “KitchenAid Professional Series Cutlery” set is the silent star of “In the Hands of…” which profiles a group of skilled culinary experts behind West Coast hotspots such as La Brea Bakery, Gracias Madre and Belcampo Meat Company as they talk about their careers and passions — while using the Professional Series knives to make signature dishes or cocktails. (For instance, in one of the episodes highlighting Belcampo, the restaurant’s executive chef Maiki Lee discusses its approach to raising and preparing organic meat.)
“I’m trying to get away from the common and typical hard sale, where you focus on the features and benefits of products x, y and z,” said Wendeline Ortiz, senior global category manager of cutlery, bakeware, roasters at KitchenAid. “The campaign may not drive sales today, but it will definitely benefit us in creating a desire for the brand and product.”
The brand is adopting a wide content-distribution strategy, which includes social platforms like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest, as well as additional marketing and distribution via a partnership with Amazon.
Starting this week, the six-episode video series will be available on KitchenAid.com, Facebook and YouTube.
Facebook will play a key role. It’s KitchenAid’s most popular social channel with more than 368,000 followers. The social platform is “best” at helping brands insert themselves into “everyday speak,” according to Josh Beane, founder and CEO of Idea Farmer, the agency enlisted by KitchenAid to produce the content. Full episodes of “In the Hands of…” will be distributed on the brand’s Facebook page. (YouTube, where KitchenAid has only 9,400 subscribers on its flagship channel, will also carry full episodes.) Idea Farmer also developed additional pieces of content for the campaign, including shorter videos for social platforms like Twitter and Instagram.
As many Web video producers have started to recognize, a distributed strategy requires creating content that’s tailor-made for each distribution platform.“In the Hands of…” will follow the same pattern. For instance, instead of recutting the series’ episodes into 15-second segments, Beane said Idea Farmer created additional “micro” versions that could easily be shared on Instagram and Twitter.
Beyond KitchenAid’s own social channels, the distribution plan includes the social accounts of the food and drink experts and restaurants featured in the video series. Whether they’re popular on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram (or all three), “In the Hands of…” content will be pushed out to these channels. KitchenAid and Idea Farmer are also looking to partner with relevant bloggers and social influencers to drive additional awareness to the campaign, Beane said.
All social content will drive viewers to the collection’s product page on Amazon, which is exclusively selling the collection until Oct. 18.
The retailer is also on board to help with distribution and marketing. Amazon will host the video series on the cutlery collection’s product page. The Amazon Media Group will also deliver 15- and 30-second video ads to promote the series and the product across Amazon-owned platforms (including the Kindle) and other Web and mobile publishers in its ad network.
This particular project is the first of many for KitchenAid as it expands in video. “It’s a growing preference for our brand,” said Ortiz. “This is one series, but there will be more that we have talked about with Idea Farmer to help us further showcase [our products] across categories — not just cutlery.”
Images provided by Idea Farmer
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