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CAT T L E I N D U S T RY W I N T E R B U S I N E S S M E E T I N G C H E C KO F F H I G H L I G H T S S E S S I O N OV E RV I E W The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) was one of eight Beef Checkoff contractors that presented information in the “Checkoff Highlights” session during the Cattle Industry Winter Business Meeting on Feb. 4, 2021. From nutrition and e-commerce to advertising and public relations, staff provided an overview of Checkoff-funded program highlights managed through the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association. Holiday Campaign Update Knowing the holidays might look a little different, based on the COVID-19 pandemic, NCBA developed a fully integrated holiday campaign to ensure that beef was the top protein of choice during the holiday season in late 2020 by leveraging the Beef Drool Log—which is a 2-hour video of beef rotating on an open flame—to make sure that consumers continued to salivate and celebrate with beef. Market Research Market research was conducted to understand consumer plans and found that more consumers would be celebrating closer to home and that in doing so, they would be watching more holiday movies at home and shopping online through e-commerce efforts. Consumer Marketing NCBA’s consumer marketing team is constantly looking for opportunities to position beef as the top protein by creating digital ads that positively position beef. This year, the team identified a unique opportunity to get Beef. It’s What’s For Dinner. back on broadcast TV advertising for the first time since 2003. Beef Checkoff-funded advertisements aired more than 50 times on TV during the Hallmark Channel’s Countdown to Christmas movies to reach consumers who were binge-watching at home. Thanks in part to the Federation of State Beef Councils investment, the :15 second Drool Log commercial was just
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one of many video ads seen on broadcast, digital and social media platforms. A fully integrated paid media plan made sure that consumers who were on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and Twitter, searching on Google or even listening to Spotify—a streaming radio platform that is popular with our target audience—were served a variety of holiday Drool Log ads. Even select Albertson’s grocery stores ran the Drool Log in their supermarkets. Collectively, the paid advertising efforts resulted in more than 78 million impressions, more than 21 million video views and nearly 6 million audio listens. Media Relations NCBA also wanted to make sure that people around the country knew exactly how to prepare the perfect holiday meal with beef, so a satellite media tour was conducted live from the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association Culinary Center, funded by the Beef Checkoff, with a well-known registered dietitian who conducted television and radio interviews with stations across the country. This resulted in 24 interviews with more than 900 airings and reaching more than 22 million viewers and listeners. Key Opinion Leaders NCBA worked with ten food influencers as well as four very high-profile chefs that have large social followings to create a groundswell of chefs and influencers who were preparing beef on digital and social platforms. NCBA hosted a virtual Roast & Toast event which brought together food influencers and esteemed chef, Jet Tila, to engage influencers into making their own perfect holiday meals with beef, including charcuterie boards with beef products and of course, a holiday beef roast. This resulted in a combined reach of more than 8 million and more than 232,000 social media engagements. Product Quality & Education Product
Quality
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Education
includes four Checkoff-funded program areas (Supply Chain Outreach and Engagement, Key Opinion Leader Outreach and Engagement, Product Quality Research and Culinary Support) that are focused on ensuring beef is positioned as the top protein. The two projects featured below showcase how these Checkoff-funded program areas help provide unique and real-world education to key stakeholders in the industry and provide inspiration for consumers to buy and cook more beef at home confidently. The programs not only share the right information to best position beef, but they drive measurable product sales and bring a strong return on investment as well. E-Commerce: Elevating Fresh Beef’s Profile in Online Shopping E-commerce has fast-tracked its growth projections, growing more in the last six months than it was supposed to grow in the next 2-5 years, with 51% of consumers increasing their online shopping and 21% trying online shopping for the first time.1 Online ordering of fresh beef is an important area of focus and a great way to reach consumers and generate beef sales. The Checkoff-funded Beef. It’s What’s For Dinner. team has worked to complete e-commerce campaigns with several partners including Instacart, the top third-party online grocery delivery app, with great success in getting beef in online baskets. The sales lift that resulted from running timely beef messaging on the Instacart platform ranged from 19%28% versus the same period 12 months prior. The beefitswhatsfordinner.com website was enhanced to make the nearly 1,000 recipes shoppable, allowing consumers to click on any recipe, add all the ingredients needed to prepare that meal to an online shopping cart for a local grocery store, then have the ingredients delivered directly or ready for curbside pick-up.
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Chicory powers more than 5 million shoppable recipes across countless recipe sites and the Beef Checkoff partnered with them to use in-recipe Beef. It’s What’s For Dinner. creative to reach summer grillers and drive sales directly with Chicory’s national retail partners Kroger and Walmart to help ensure beef was the #1 protein choice. Digital campaign metrics show more than 9.8 million impressions and nearly 19,000 engagements, beating Chicory’s benchmarks. Most importantly, the campaign drove retail beef sales for those consumers who were exposed to campaign creative. For example, every $1 invested in the campaign yielded a $4.21 return in beef sales with just one participating national retailer, and the percent of sales that came through online ordering was double to triple the rates seen across other products. Meeting consumers where they are is essential for brands and products and right now, where they are is online. Making sure beef is a top choice for them when shopping online is critical for category growth not only now, but certainly into the future. Chef’s Roll Video Series: Beef Quality Assurance & Chefs The journey to deliver high-quality and safe beef certainly requires collaboration from pasture to plate. At each step of the process—from the beef farmers and ranchers who raise beef and abide by Beef Quality Assurance (BQA) standards to the chefs who prepare beef in their restaurants - there is a strong commitment to delivering that highquality beef that consumers love. That’s why Checkoff-funded Beef. It’s What’s For Dinner., in partnership with thirdparty influencer group Chef’s Roll, which has a very large online following of prominent chefs and foodservice professionals, brought beef farmers and ranchers together with chefs. This was done in a five-part video series CONTINUED ON PAGE 44
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