“We know that consumers are increasingly looking back through that dairy value chain to understand where their food is coming from and how it’s produced,” Barbara O’Brien, president of Dairy Management Inc. (DMI) and the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy, said.
“Our vision is to ensure people trust dairy as essential to their lives and essential as a food and beverage group.”
The multimedia campaign will be revealed through an online video that showcases dairy as part of consumers’ everyday lives while spotlighting farmers’ contributions to the community. The multi-year campaign will feature a new logo and media campaign, including on-air and digital marketing with Food Network and Cooking Channel in June. Original content will be shared across Facebook, YouTube and other social platforms.
'Behind the barn door'
The dairy industry recognized an opportunity to better engage with consumers through transparent messaging of their dairy products that they feel have been misrepresented in that past by dairy alternative competitors.
“Most people live within 100 miles from a farm yet people as a population have never been so disconnected from farm agriculture,” Beth Engelmann, chief marketing communications officer at DMI, said.
“We are generations removed from the farm so we have an opportunity to bring people back to understand where their food comes from because they’re interested in that.”
The campaign also comes at a time when the rising tide of plant-based dairy alternatives have left the dairy industry feeling threatened and wanting to reclaim the dairy “brand.”
“Consumers are receiving conflicted information,” Engelmann said. “We need to take back that dialogue because it’s been so misrepresented.”
In order to get dairy consumers “behind the barn door” Undeniably Dairy will host national on-farm events where farmers will invite the community in to learn more about modern farming practices.
How does it differ from ‘Got Milk?’ campaign?
It has been a while since US dairy organizations launched an industry-wide campaign to rally support for dairy consumption. In 1993, the California Milk Processor Board introduced the ‘Got Milk?’ advertising campaign to encourage the consumption of cow’s milk, which lasted for 20 years.
Results from the campaign found that it increased milk consumption in California but not nationwide.
“The ‘Got Milk?’ campaign was one category; it was focussed on milk. This is milk, cheese, yogurt, ice cream, whey, you name it,” Engelmann said.
“This is not a generic campaign for one organization; this is designed to create two-way dialogue.”