Dairy Checkoff Programs Target Families Through Two Strategies
Dairy Management Inc. (DMI) is using two national consumer programmes to promote dairy products during different stages of family life. We Are Family focuses on household meal planning and grocery shopping, while First 1,000 Days addresses parents from conception until a child reaches the age of two.
We Are Family is in its third year and will continue through October. Its retail-linked media activity appears at Walmart and Costco, and has expanded to Sam’s Club for the first time. The campaign combines digital and social media, video, creator-led material and messages linked to shopping behaviour.
The programme covers several points before and during a purchase, including searches for meal ideas, grocery-list preparation, shopping and placing dairy products in a cart. Its messages are adapted for families focused on routines and meal planning, as well as active households seeking convenient sources of protein and snack options.
“We understand that reaching consumers today means being relevant to their lives and meeting them where they are,” said Marilyn Hershey, a Pennsylvania dairy farmer and chair of DMI. Aris Georgiadis, DMI’s senior vice-president for marketing communications, said messages could reach consumers while they were writing shopping lists, travelling home or otherwise focused on food.
First 1,000 Days is also scheduled to run through October. It presents milk, cheese and yoghurt as sources of nutrients that can support cognition and engages parents and health and wellness experts on childhood nutrition. The strategy places information on BabyCenter and What to Expect, digital resources used by expecting and new parents, with material covering dairy’s role at different developmental stages and nutrients linked to growth and development.
“Strong bones are just the start” is one message used in the First 1,000 Days effort. Paid and owned material runs across social, search, video and other digital channels. Georgiadis said the programme’s audience is continually renewed as couples decide to have children, families become pregnant and parents have additional children.
Both initiatives form part of the wider Dairy Does More campaign. DMI says the national checkoff aims to encourage daily dairy consumption, with a stated goal of reaching three servings a day. The organisation is funded by more than 23,000 dairy farmers and dairy importers, manages the national checkoff programme and works with state and regional teams on research, education and marketing in the United States and abroad.
