BRANDWEEK
November 10, 2003

The Next Martha?
Miramax brokers deal for cookbook author Sandra Lee to anchor $100M marketing push across Campbell’s Pepperidge Farm, Prego and V8 brands.

Campbell Opens the Book On Deal with Sandra Lee
Author: Sonia Reyes
Section: Strategy

Renowned cooking author is key ingredient in marketing recipe.

CAMPBELL SOUP has signed Sandra Lee, cookbook author and Food Network host, as a spokeswoman across its portfolio of products, beginning with a national holiday TV and print effort breaking this month for condensed soup recipes.

In her best selling book, Semi-Homemade Cooking, Lee helps time-frazzled cooks prepare quick meals with shortcuts using ready-made branded products like Campbell's Cream of Mushroom soup.

Lee joins Food Network's Gordon Elliott in a $100 million marketing campaign, tagged "Make it Campbell's Instead," which heralds a "huge departure" for Campbell's marketing strategy as it shifts away from fragmented brand-specific messaging to a more strategic "one voice, one message that still differentiates each brand," per Terry Atkins, director- consumer promotion/licensing.

The Campbell pact follows a multimedia deal Lee signed with Miramax last year that will leverage her lifestyle brand to a variety of books, TV and merchandising projects, including ventures around gardening, beauty, food and fashion products, a la Martha Stewart. Miramax is testing a Semi-Homemade magazine at newsstands this week; her Food Network show debuted in October. "We're doing what we do with a movie or TV property, moving it into different platforms," said Lori Sale, evp-worldwide promotion for Miramax. "But, this is a first for us in that she is a real live brand who herself embraces brands."

In one spot, via BBDO, New York, Lee shows Elliott how to cook Campbell's Seafood Tomato Alfredo. The aim: to rev up stale sales of condensed soup. The commercials have been shot in an unscripted fashion for a reality show flair.

From soup to nuts:
Sandra Lee gets branded