EQAL, the creators of lonelygirl15, KateModern and Harpers Globe are in the midst of their latest success story – they’ve built an online community that every brand marketer dreams of. They built www.realwomenofphiladelphia.com.

Kraft’s Philadelphia Cream Cheese and Food Network star Paula Deen have teamed up to host the Real Women of Philadelphia online community and casting competition. The campaign, which ran for 8 weeks, included an online casting audition for cooks to show off their best Philadelphia Cream Cheese recipes by submitting their videos to www.PaulaDeen.com/RealWomen.

Sixteen lucky home cooks became finalists and are getting a chance to compete in a live cook-off in Paula Deen’s home town of Savannah, Ga June 30. Four of these cooks will be named the Real Women of Philadelphia – each earning a talent contract for $25,000, the chance to host their own weekly online cooking show on www.PaulaDeen.com/RealWomen and the opportunity to be featured in a cookbook that highlights the community’s favorite cream cheese recipes.

The engagement figures have surpassed expectations and this campaign isn’t over yet!
· Total visitors / avg. page views / avg. time spent: 672,259 / 4.5 / 4:23
· Unique visitors / avg. page views / avg. time spent: 497,530 / 2.3 / 1:44
· Repeat visitors / avg. page views / avg. time spent: 174,729 / 10.8 / 11:56
· 4,208 total registrants to Real Women of Philadelphia site
· 153,948 video plays on Real Women of Philadelphia site
· 1,575,605 video plays on GoodBite.com
· 21,373 comments posted on Real Women of Philadelphia site
· 5,159 videos uploaded by users

Next steps for this program which is already paying off in regards to engagement? In addition to 16 finalists, Paula Deen is on the hunt for one super-fan from the community to also come to Savannah to be a part of this project. This super fan will act as the “Voice” of the community for the cook-off, receiving an all expense paid trip to Savannah to spend time with Paula and the finalists and act as the behind-the-scenes ambassador for the entire four days. The 17th finalist will be determined based on her passion for the contest and her active social network promotions of the event.

I think the EQAL guys have done a great job with this web series for Kraft. I only wish they owned it all.