Campbell Soup Company: Staying Fresh for 150 Years

With Thanksgiving approaching, home cooks around the country are preparing their menus and getting ready for the most anticipated meal of the year. Guests are also brainstorming ways to wow their host with a dish to bring along to contribute to the food-centric holiday with family and friends.  

Many people trust social media for recipe inspiration and this is an opportunity for brands to share timely content. For decades, one household name has been a go-to not only for recipe ideas, but also for sourcing ingredients. That iconic brand is Campbell Soup Company!

With Campbell Soup Company celebrating their 150th anniversary, I found this to be a great time to observe their social media presence. For years, I have followed their brand and I’m a consumer of many of their Snack division products.

Marketing and public relations best practices can be found in their social media strategy during this pivotal year for their company as they welcome a new President and Chief Executive Officer, Mark Clouse. In January he started his leadership role and is already making a positive impact. To view their annual report click here. 

Brand Background

Since 1869 Campbell Soup Company has evolved and has a wide range of food products available for the average American to enhance dinner.

They launched their first recipe book in 1910! Campbell Soup Company has evolved from showcasing their recipes on soup can labels, to using social media and technology to share meal inspirations and  their philosophy on food. If consumers head over to Campbell’s Kitchen Facebook page they will find variety of photos of food that link to the recipe on their blog.  

“Living Our Real Food purpose. Celebrating 150 years of making delicious and affordable food.” is the description on their Instagram profile. This short description is packed with a lot of meaning. The company’s commitment to ‘real food’ is a strong one and it’s explained in detail on their Our Values page on their website. These words are backed up by actions that prove their commitment to people and the planet.

Snapshot of Campbell Soup Co. on Social Media

Campbell's social media presences i just as diverse as their brand offerings! The brand is so diverse and so is their presence on social media. With multiple channels, they are attracting different target markets - shareholders, investors, consumers and employees.  

Facebook Presence

Campbell’s Kitchen is the name of the Facebook page that the company uses most frequently. This page targets consumers looking for ideas of how to use their products. Frequent posts of recipes are posted on the page with a snappy caption and a professional photo to accompany it. Each platform has a different approach because the demographics vary for each. The platforms also allow for different features. For example, Facebook hyperlinks in a photo caption and directs the user to a blog page, while on Instagram there is not the capability to link in the caption.

Something notable to point out is the absence of videos. They have not posted a video since 2018. This must be part of their re-structure of their digital content. With a focus on the recipes and hyperlinking of them back to the website page, there is no need for the videos here unless it's a recipe video.   

Instagram Presence

Instagram is one of the fastest growing social platform and it's fascinating to see what Campbell is doing here. They shift who they are targeting from their Facebook page. The persona is no longer a home cook looking for inspo in the kitchen. Judging by the type of content they are sharing they are now targeting shareholders, current and potential employees, the media and industry partners. 

The content focuses on the following area of interests.  

• Brand Awareness - spotlight on multiple brands within Campbell's portfolio
• Introducing their new CEO, Mark Clouse 
• Thought Leadership Stories
• #PeopleofCampbell -  hashtag used for employee's stories
• Seasonal Topics
• Corporate Events 
• User Generated Content (I mean who doesn’t love these kids dressed as Goldfish!?)

Instagram stories is an area where Campbell could potentially gain more attention! The brand has several past stories saved in their highlights with a focus on campaigns or event-focused stories. Perhaps if stories are used more to cross-promote feed content their numbers should skyrocket. Instagram stories has nearly 500 million people on Instagram stories every day according to Hootsuite. One third of the most stories viewed are from businesses. With those stats backing it up it would be wise to build a strategy that will allow more viewers to see the strong brand content.

Twitter Presence

The brand’s Twitter account is attracting potential talent and recruiters. Using Twitter as a tool for talent acquisition is smart because it gives job seekers a snapshot into what the corporate culture is like. Following @CampbellSoupCo on Twitter is different than the other channels because the focus is on videos of their employees.

The style of their video is professional and 

#PeopleofCampbell is a hashtag that has stories of employees of Campbell sharing their experience.  This hashtag is also used on Instagram as well. There is some overlap of content on Instagram and Twitter because of the thought leadership stories. An example is the Potato Summit at HQ where they invited farmers who supply potatoes for products to meet about innovation and suitability.

Click here to read the Tweet about it.  

Click here to read the Instagram post about it. 

Summary

In summary, Campbell Soup Company appears to always have an abundance be of valuable content on social media as well as their website. That means their digital team is doing an excellent job sourcing and creating a wholesome mix of user generated content, recipe ideas, thought leadership stories and product promotions.

Knowing that they are going through a milestone year, makes me curious what is to come next on their website and other channels!

Below is a screenshot from page 62 of the Campbell Soup Company  Annual Report. Here it explains the channels and where to go to find information. There are multiple websites to go to depending on the information. 

I hope you found this helpful as you strategically plan your social media plans. Looking at content of successful brands as a case study will spark ideas for your new campaigns. It is also a reminder to get to the grocery store to stock up on those cans of cream of mushroom soup for your Thanksgiving green bean casserole!