Yoplait is using an unconventional marketing strategy in its latest national campaign—it’s holding a taste-off, encouraging consumers to try Yoplait Greek blueberry yogurt and compare it to Greek-style blueberry yogurt from Chobani, a competitor. (How unconventional?) What’s not so strange is that Yoplait is getting consumers involved by asking them to post what they think of the two yogurts on social media using a hashtag: #TasteOff.
The campaign, which kicked off Jan. 20, provides gift cards to the first people to sign up at GreekTasteOff.com, and Yoplait is holding taste tests across the country, including in New York City, where Dannon unexpectedly decided to provide free samples, too.
Yoplait TasteOff
Yoplait, owned by General Mills, created GreekTasteOff.com (using Tumblr) to highlight social media posts—from Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram and people can tweet directly from the landing page. The site features a map—#TasteOff, from sea to shining sea—showing from where in the United States people are taste-testing and sharing their opinions. Yoplait, however, was mum when asked what technology is powering this social media hub.
According to Seth Pederson, integrated marketing manager for Yoplait Greek, the company thought the best way to spread the word about how much people love Yoplait Greek yogurt was to let consumers try the yogurt for themselves and tell their own stories.
“Taste is subjective, so the best way to share this kind of news was by spotlighting what real people think. That’s why we use real taste-off examples in our advertising, it’s why we created the Yoplait Greek Taste-Off Store in New York City and are asking people to taste-off just 300 feet from the Chobani store, and why we’ve taken to social channels so heavily and asked real people to taste-off for themselves and tell us what they think,” he told Ebyline.
When asked how else Yoplait plans on using #TasteOff messages from consumers, Pederson would only say it has “some fun surprises up our sleeves.” He did note, too, that Yoplait always asks for permission before using #TasteOff posts for marketing.
So, what has been Yoplait’s most successful marketing campaign? Pederson said successful campaigns at Yoplait always involve listening to yogurt fans—an important strategy for all brands. He cited the company’s You Talk, We Listen campaign held last fall. The result: Yoplait removed high fructose corn syrup from its yogurt, switched to only natural flavors and sweeteners in kids yogurts, and developed a Greek yogurt without a sour taste.
“At the same time, the Yoplait Greek Taste-Off uses the same approach—we listened to what yogurt fans wanted, and didn’t rest until we had made a Greek yogurt that tastes as amazing as you’d expect from Yoplait,” said Pederson.
Yoplait is currently on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest and YouTube. And, according to Pederson, the yogurt company is always evaluating the social space to see where yogurt fans will be engaging next.
“Our goal is to engage with them in creative and valuable ways, in the places where they want to engage. Every new channel, though, requires more people and time to manage, so it’s always a balancing act. We’re looking forward to whatever is coming next,” he said.
