Dive Brief:
- Few companies attract as much positive press or as many high-profile investors as Hampton Creek. The company's efforts to replace eggs in food production has struck a chord with people who are worried about human health and animal cruelty, and with those who see opportunity in building an alternative food industry.
- The folks at the American Egg Board have mounted an advertising and marketing campaign aimed at countering the buzz. The board has bought up keywords in search engines -- trying to drive people seeking people information about Hampton Creek and its backers to sites that sing the praises of old-fashioned chicken-based eggs.
- The American Egg Board's strategy appears designed to raise questions in consumers' minds about the complicated processes and multiple ingredients that Hampton Creek uses to make "Beyond Eggs," "Just Mayo" and "Eat the Dough."
Dive Insight:
There's a brilliance about the Egg Board's approach that's worth noting. The board seems to have found a weakness in the media/tech/investing juggernaut that is Hampton Creek. And that weakness is that creating an egg alternative is complicated. So consumers are being asked to choose between simple, but nasty and complex, but nice. We'll have to wait and see how it all shakes out. But we'll put our money on Hampton Creek. It remains our favorite among the new techie-food companies.