The Backstory

ConAgra worked with Ketchum (of Omnicom Group) to come up with an idea for people to try their lasagna and razzleberry pie products from the Marie Callender’s line.

Their plan was to have five nights of an exclusive “underground” restaurant where specifically chosen bloggers and the like would be invited to this invitation only limited event and they could even bring a guest from their blog.

They would be treated to a four course meal by a celebrity chef, George Duran of TLC’s Ultimate Cake Off.

Sounds great right? Yeah … not so much.

What Really Happened

Instead of a dinner cooked by George Duran, the guests were treated to Marie Callender’s Lasagna and Razzleberry Pie – without being told that’s what they would be served.

Afterward, they were asked to sign wavers because the entire thing was video taped ala Punked.

What Went Wrong

Bloggers are bloggers because they’re really good at sharing their opinion and writing their opinion in such a way that it influences others naturally.  This is how they build trust with their audience.

This PR stunt made these bloggers lie to their audience saying that they had a chance to win a four course dinner with them cooked by a celebrity chef.

The Outcome

Many guests were enraged that they were tricked into tasting foods they would never try due to the poor nutritional value (you have to remember a lot of the guests are niche bloggers – none of which, I believe, specialise in frozen food).

As you can imagine, the bloggers had a responsibility to come clean to their audience about what happened to them and that they felt bad they tricked their audience because of it.  This resulted in several very upset bloggers posting about the evening and resulted in a lot of negative PR for ConAgra, Marie Callender’s, George Duran, and Phil Lempert (food industry analyst).

Unfortunately George Duran made the decision to go along with this charade and now his reputation is ruined because of it – as is Phil Lempert’s.  It is unlikely they’ll recover any time soon.

What They Should Have Done

Now, what ConAgra should have done is made the dinner more of a Pepsi vs Coke challenge.

“We’re inviting you to a spectacular evening of gourmet tasting!
Enjoy an evening of fine company, great conversation and one-of-a-kind sangria.
Taste an amazing array of small dishes by renouned chef George Duran and be a part of our exclusive Chef challenge.
We’re pitting Chef Marie vs Chef George – you tell us which dish takes the cake.”

(Notice the little “takes the cake” a reference to George’s Ultimate Cake Off show on TLC.)

Now – had they done that, then everyone would have been aware that they were tasting two separate dishes and Chef George would have been able to keep his reputation.

They could have done several taste tests:

Start with Appetizers

Say using the Country Fried Pork Chop dinner – a chef from ConAgra could have made a small appetizer of some of the potatoes made into a croquette with some of the batter from the pork as the base, little cubes of the pork, tiny bits of the apples, and a little bit of gravy as a one bite appetizer.  It may have looked odd but probably would have tasted fine – sweet, salty, crunchy, soft.  Perfect.

Then Chef George could have created his version of an appetizer with the similar ingredients.

Then ask the diners which one they thought was better and what they would improve about the one they didn’t like.  Asking them what they would improve is really important because that would allow ConAgra to get better instead of just forcing their existing products on people.

Then move onto the Entree

If they want to do the lasagna, sure, let’s move ahead with the pasta idea but instead of one, let’s do a trio: a little cube of the meat lasagna, a bit of Balsamic Chicken, and some of the Garlic Herb Chicken and take some of the garlic bread from the meals and use that as the bread for these.

And Chef George could create his version of each.  Make each one only 2 bites worth because it’s a lot of food for people to get through.

Everyone says which they liked best, what they would change, … and so on.

And finally for Dessert

Do a little duo of desserts, same idea as before, this time use the Razzleberry Pie and the Chocolate Satin Pie and have Chef George create his own  version of each.

Once everyone was done then you have the reveal.  Each mini-dish is shown on a plate, the votes are tallied for each for who liked which one best and the chef is revealed – be it Chef Marie Callender or Chef George Duran.

My bet is that some of Chef Marie’s dishes would be favored and Chef George wouldn’t win everything.  And the diners would be glad to have tried everything and had a chance to give their feedback.

And you would get genuine and positive surprise at the end revealing where each dish came from.

The Benefit of the Competition Model

When you do a competition people want to participate, they want to give their opinion and be heard.  Because they know there are two different things in play they would know that there’s something that will be revealed (like the Pepsi vs Coke challenge) but they wouldn’t know what.  However, in this case it would be so incredibly positive for ConAgra to showcase how their food can compete with a Chef’s offerings – and more over, would show that they really care about what  people think and want to make their food better.

Then they could take the feedback from everyone at these events, work with Chef George, and incorporate the things people liked most about his dishes into theirs.

The Outcome of the Competition

Bloggers would write about how they had fun, had great conversation, and tasted things they wouldn’t have tried otherwise and how some of the Marie Callender’s foods actually tasted good.

ConAgra would get positive reviews.  Marie Callender’s would get positive reviews.  Chef George Duran would maintain and potentially increase his reputation and would get positive reviews.

And everyone would win.

Well … everyone would have won if things were done that way.

What do you think?

Read More

New York Times’: Bloggers Don’t Follow the Script, to ConAgra’s Chagrin

Mom Confessionals’: When the food turned sour…

Food Mayhem’s: Open Letter to George Duran