Philadelphia Cream Cheese has taken a turn for the social with the launch of its promotion, “The Real Women of Philadelphia.”

The promotion features Food Network Canada personality Anna Olson and asks Canadian women to upload videos of themselves cooking with Philadelphia Cream Cheese in four categories: appetizers, mains, desserts and sides.

At the end of eight weeks, finalists will be brought to Toronto for a cooking competition lead by Olson and four will be chosen as the ‘Real Women of Philadelphia.’ Each winner will receive $20,000, have a featured role on an online community at Realwomenofphiladelphia.ca, and appear in an online cookbook with recipes from the competition. 

It’s a departure from the “Heaven” campaign Kraft has been running for Philadelphia Cream Cheese for many years now, says Farrah Bezner, marketing director, Kraft Canada.

“We wanted to update our advertising for 2011 with a new, more modern campaign,” she says. “We have been very active in digital campaigns in the past but we wanted to take it up a level. The Real Women of Philadelphia community gives consumers a forum to get information from us, but also [allows] Kraft to communicate with people who have similar interests in a social space, which is something new for us.”

Revamping creative from the US, courtesy of Los Angeles-based Eqal, Kraft Canada worked with Rethink for the Canadian activation plan and media support, and Starcom MediaVest Group Canada for the media buy.

The Real Women of Philadelphia is targeted at women aged 35 to 55 and will be promoted through TV, in magazines including Canadian Living, Chatelaine, Saltscapes and Kraft’s What’s Cooking and through banner advertising on the Food Network, Delish and What’s Cooking websites.