Americans will eat 46% more chips this Sunday and Kraft Foods intends to be there in living rooms across the land to soak it all up. Literally.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Kraft hired House Party, an Irvington, N.Y. experiential marketing firm whose specialty is setting up parties to promote clients’ products.
Using its database, House Party emailed Internet-savvy women ages 25 to 50, Velveeta’s target market, offering them the chance to host a game-day party featuring Velveeta. Both House Party and Kraft also promoted the offer on their Web sites. More than 15,000 women applied, and 2,500 Velveeta lovers were chosen.
The hostesses, who won’t be paid for their services, get “party packs” containing a 32-ounce package of Velveeta, take-home plastic Velveeta storage containers for 16 guests, a recipe for chili con queso dip — along with the requisite cans of diced tomatoes and green chilies — a spinach dip recipe, a dip bowl, a couple of bags of Ritz toasted chips, snack-bag clips, Velveeta coupons, Kool-Aid and cups. House Party said it couldn’t estimate the value of the party packs.
Don’t laugh. Angilyn Mathews, a stay-at-home mother of five who lives in South Jordan, Utah, was chosen to party Velveeta-style. “It’s like an honor to get picked for the party,” she says. “When we got the party pack with all the fun things inside, it was like Christmas.” Okay, now laugh.
