Digital CPG Blog

Mark Addicks, General Mills’ chief marketing officer, gave a very insightful presentation on General Mills social media strategy at a recent BlogWell conference in Minneapolis. The presentation (located here) lasts about 20 minutes and is well-worth a listen. You can also check out Mark’s slides below:
BlogWell Minneapolis Social Media Case Study: General Mills, presented by Mark Addicks

It is great to see a big player like General Mills beginning to embrace social media with such gusto.  As Mark mentions in his presentation, General Mills is working hard to “bring scale to social media.”  A few key takeaways:

• General Mills understands that “the consumer owns our brands,” which is part of the overall shift in marketing that social media is driving
• General Mills is working hard to get closer to its consumer in lots of ways, and social media is a big part of that push
• A good social strategy enhances “margin advantage”
• General Mills is now launching many of its new products “conversationally” with social media

Want further evidence that General Mills is going after social media in a big way?  Mark mentions (almost in passing) that the Betty Crocker brand is almost completely out of t.v. in favor of social media.  That is a pretty amazing statement, but seems to make perfect sense when you see studies like this.

What other CPG brands are using social media in effective ways?  P&G’s Loads of Hope campaign comes to mind, but we’d love to hear of others.