M&M's vs. Hershey's Kisses -- a Media Trick or Treat?

Overall marketing programs In the past year, M&M's advertising has pushed its M&M's Premiums flavor variants and customized My M&M's blends, including the My NFL Blends. M&M's is also a fixture to Nascar fans via their branded racing car and sponsorship of Kyle Busch. This Halloween, M&M's is running its familiar "Headless Horseman" spot that features an M&M riding on a horse on Halloween night. The ad lures viewers to its website by ending with a voiceover announcing a one million dollar contest at www.mms.com. Along with the promotion, the website houses many Halloween-themed pages and links. In past years, M&M's has significantly outspent Hershey's Kisses in media, according to TNS Media Index, by about $84 million compared to $14 million to $16 million. In 2009, Hershey's stepped up its media advertising investment significantly to almost $36 million for the year. This Halloween, Hershey's introduced Kisses in three-packs. The Hershey's Co. has been highly active on TV; however, only Reese's Peanut Butter Cups' TV creative is Halloween-themed. Hershey's Kisses TV and magazine ads are not season-specific in promoting them as "delightfully delicious." The company did develop an extensive Hershey's Halloween-themed web site -- trickortreats.com. RATINGS TV For both brands, TV was a primary driver of its media plan. Year-to-date, M&M's has placed about $26 million, or 54%, of its media budget in TV. M&M's looked to prioritize efficiency -- notably placing the lions share of its TV schedule in cable and syndication, with the smaller spend on network. M&M's placed a heavy drama, comedy and film program mix on cable networks, including Lifetime, TNT and TBS, with a steady staple of programming on the TV Guide channel. Its syndication deal was principally placed with Paramount Domestic Television, which included shows such as "Frasier," "Entertainment Tonight" and "Judge Judy." Its network buy was split two-thirds to ABC and a third on CBS. Websites The main M&M's website features recipes, games and current promotions. My favorite feature is the opportunity to create your own M&M character, where you can choose from a menu of features and accessories. This is a really nice way to personalize the experience and encourage brand ownership. A good selection of branded games are available, including "50 Dark Movies" and "Shmuffleboard." Consumers can find links to print their own custom M&M's. Recipes link through to BrightIdeas.com, which is Mars' sponsored online recipe book where consumers are encouraged to upload their own ideas and recipes. The Hershey's Kisses main website features a Kisses factory. On the site, consumers can find links to different products, recipes and downloads, including wallpapers for computers and cellphones, screen savers and e-cards, and a link to Hershey's "Night at the Museum" promotion. Social Media The M&M's Facebook page has 295,600 fans and provides them with informational and promotional updates every three to four days. It also includes Facebook applications allowing fans to vote for the best M&M's Halloween costumes and links to the Million Dollar Mansion. M&M's maintains three Twitter accounts. The main one is run by Ms. Green. On Ms. Green's Twitter feed, consumers can find updates on M&M's promotions and interact with M&M's. The other M&M's Twitter accounts deal with the racing sponsorship of Kyle "Rowdy" Busch. RidingWithRowdy provides in-race updates, while MMSRacing provides updates to Kyle and M&M's promotions outside of racing. Magazines M&M's has spent nearly 38% of its budget in magazines supporting its various promotions around Nascar, NFL and the Kiss tour as well as variants such as milk chocolate, dark chocolate and Strawberried Peanut Butter. It was active in high-reaching popular titles such as People, In Style, TV Guide, Star and ESPN The Magazine. Hershey's ran in publications with strong female audiences including People, Us Weekly, Better Homes & Garden, Family Circle, More, Parents, Health and Elle. Cross Promotions/Sponsorships M&M's supported a cross-brand promotion with "Transformers: Revenge of the Falls," released in May. Its tie-in with the brand was one of the most inclusive and integrated I've seen for a long time. It included a nice play on M&M's brand characters Red and Yellow with their "Transformer" namesakes. It extensively used the film's director Michael Bay in the production of the commercial and featured it within the "Inner M" print campaign. It also undertook a digital scavenger adventure online. Finally, it re-painted Kyle Busch's Nascar Sprint Cup Series No.18 Toyota with a special "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" design used for one of his races timed around the release of the film. Specially themed "Transformers" packaging completed the integration at the point of purchase. Hershey's Kisses created a competition around the "Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian." A national TV commercial with specific shots featuring the film's characters was set in the museum. It launched an on-pack promotion that gave a chance to win a special VIP sleepover at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, and an online promotion let visitors explore the museum online and enter sweeps to win cash prizes. The idea was nice, but the site to me was a bit clunky. I don't know whether Hershey's is kicking itself at being scooped by M&M's with the Kiss Concert tour promotion or if it just passed on it. Either way it seemed a missed opportunity. Summary M&M's would seem to have the deck stacked in its favor from the outset, with bigger budgets supporting its larger base of business. However, it's how it executed across the board in each of the individual channels, and particularly how the programs were integrated, that impressed. Notably, its substantial online programs are a competitive advantage in this category. The way in which it leveraged its sponsorship promotions was also very strong. Hershey's Kisses, by comparison, delivered a strong TV strategy that we know has worked. Sales and share for the brand are up for the year, largely attributable to the increased advertising support, so kudos for increasing its investment in the down economy and reaping the rewards. I would have thought in this category, however, where there is such a broad consumer affinity with brands, Hershey's would have engaged in more active conversation in social media. Its limited presence gave way for M&M's to take home the treat for best media strategy this year.

M&M's vs. Hershey's Kisses -- a Media Trick or Treat?

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