Are cereal boxes "platforms for content"? So argues Mark Addicks, the chief marketing officer for General Mills, who walks USA Today's Jefferson Graham through the addition of QR codes and augmented reality to the company's cereal brands. Betty Crocker, by the way, is another digital/social platform for the company. "There's never been a time like this," observes Addicks, a 23-year veteran of the company. "Because of the digital technology that resides in people's hands … we can now deliver content that engages and enhances the experience. Before, we had to rely on a 30-second TV ad."Continue reading...

Everybody knows by now (or should) that there is an obesity epidemic in America, particularly among children. And a good chunk of the blame can go to the wide availability of high-sugar, high-calorie, low nutritional value food.

But how do those products continue to sustain themselves? How do such things keep being selected from grocery-store shelves in a culture that constantly congratulates itself on putting our kids first! After all, they’re our future, right?

A new study from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health lays some blame on the nagging abilities of American 3- to 5-year-olds, according to USA Today.Continue reading...

Chalk this one up to a supercharged political environment that now attaches suspicions to cereal-box labels as well as virus vaccines: Kellogg has just announced that it is backing away from the “Immunity” claim on its Rice Krispies and Cocoa Krispies cereals.

As we reported Tuesday, critics recently scored Kellogg for emblazoning the claim, “Now Helps Support Your Child’s IMMUNITY” on the front of the packages after boosting the daily value of antioxidant vitamins A, C and E in the cereals to 25% last spring, from the earlier 10%.

San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera protested that Kellogg’s claim implied that its cereals could help protect kids against the swine-flu epidemic, and might mislead parents -- though Kellogg had been developing the line for more than a year, well before the advent of the H1N1 scare, and rolled it out in May.Continue reading...

"Opportunity" is right there, representing the "O," in any SWOT analysis. But sometimes, marketers mistake that "O" for "Opportunist." Such may be the case with Kellogg.

As the nation goes berserker from worries of H1N1 flu, a.k.a. swine flu, Kellogg started putting messaging on their cereal box packages claiming "Now helps support your child's IMMUNITY." That this messaging was on brands such as Cocoa Krispies raised eyebrows.

Coincidence? Maybe. Kellogg spokeswoman Susanne Norwitz protested, "It was not created to capitalize on the current H1N1 flu situation," claiming the marketing line was planned a year ago (probably true).Continue reading...

Kellogg’s has harnessed a groundbreaking laser technology that enables it to burn its iconic logo on to individual corn flakes. Cattle farmers in the Old West would no doubt be proud.

By inserting a certain number of branded flakes – sorry, Corn Flakes – into each box (they’re slightly darker but taste the same), the company claims it can guarantee the cereal’s origins, and solidify its claims that it doesn’t produce cereals for any other manufacturer.

In the dog-eat-dog world of cereal, where products contain many of the same ingredients and the barriers to entry are relatively low, branding is king.Continue reading...