The third annual Kraft Celebration Tour has gotten more social with the launch of the summer event’s improved website and community-driven Facebook page.

Phase one of the Kraft and TSN-sponsored tour began earlier this month as Canadians nominate their community by submitting photographs and an essay describing why it should be chosen to win one of ten $25 000 community awards as well as the chance to act as a live broadcast site for TSN SportsCentre, to the Kraft Celebration Tour website. The top 20 communities will then be announced July 1 (Canada Day) and consumers can vote for their favourite ten starting July 11.

From August 19 to 28 the brands will hit the road, visiting the country’s top ten winning tour stops chosen by Canadians.

So far, the 2011 tour has received 198 nominations – up approximately 30 nominations compared to the same time last year – and has seen 19,202 unique visitors land on its web page.

Enhancing the social media platform for the event has given consumers a forum to rally nomination votes and stay engaged in their campaign efforts, Julian Franklin, senior promotions manager, Kraft Canada tells MiC.

“It’s really important and beneficial for communities to have the ability to promote and communicate their campaigns [through social media],” adds Franklin. “Our consumers were telling us that they wanted to interact with us in a much richer way than they had in the past, so we have enhanced that. It has become more of a two-way conversation now.”

To market the tour campaign, a multi-platform media strategy has been implemented and encourages Canadians to nominate and vote for their favourite community. It includes TV spots currently running on TSN and CTV, a print component with ads in the Globe and Mail and What’s Cooking magazine as well as in-store displays in grocery stores across Canada.