Promotion in Action - June 2022

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June 24, 2022 IN THIS ISSUE:

COMMENTS FROM OUR CEO

Using gaming and esports to promote dairy

Midwest Dairy knows the importance of reaching consumers and exploring new ways to share dairy’s story. As you read the stories below, I hope you will see that Midwest Dairy is thinking differently and finding enterprising ways to maximize your checkoff investment. From the virtual gaming world to food service partnerships to storytelling efforts with new groups who can spread dairy’s sustainability story. There are many opportunities to make connections across our 10state region and your checkoff dollars are working hard to meet consumers where they are.

Private kitchen pitch contest New scorecard video Celebrating National Dairy Month Seeking consumers where they are Building relationships with important thought leaders

But with exploration also comes measurements of impact, something we take very seriously at Midwest Dairy. We realize not everything we do is going to be successful but by carefully measuring results and impact we can continue to build a strong strategic road map for the next partnership and the next campaign.

Midwest Dairy staff is focused on results, and we collaborate and educate each other on how to improve to use checkoff dollars wisely.

I hope you all had a great time celebrating National Dairy Month, I know I did! It is so easy to celebrate delicious and nutritious dairy foods and the great people that make them possible. We had much partner support throughout the month including retail campaigns, online influencer support and on farm celebrations. I urge you continue to share your farmers story with your community throughout the year!

MOLLY PELZER

Using gaming and esports to reclaim dairy's wellness benefits With 94 percent of Gen Z playing video games, 62 percent watching video game content, and 44 percent saying they have made a purchase decision based on a recommendation from a social influencer, like a gamer, Midwest Dairy piloting an effort to reach Gen Z consumers where they are and reclaim dairy’s wellness benefits to grow trust.

For the pilot, Midwest Dairy is working with Version1, an esports organization based in Minnesota, to position Undeniably Dairy as the official Nutrition Partner of Version1 Rocket League from May to July. The partnership’s goal is to connect with young video game players about how proper nutrition, including dairy, can optimize cognitive and physical performance for esports athletes. This project is estimated to reach at least 15 million people. This press release shares more details.

As an added opportunity with this pilot, Midwest Dairy gave all processors headquartered in our region the ability to participate for additional brand integrations. One processor, Prairie Farms, took advantage of the opportunity, and we are excited to share more learnings at the conclusion of the pilot.

Private kitchen pitch contest with The Hatchery Chicago In furthering our work in the innovation space, we have partnered with The Hatchery Chicago to launch a pitch contest for newer businesses to win exclusive access to a commercial kitchen for six months. The contest opened on June 1 and will close on June 30.

To be eligible for the contest, entrants must have a business that either has launched sales or established proof of concept. They must also use at least 25 percent dairy in the ingredient base and not contain any alternative dairy products. Once the contest closes on June 30, the top five or six applicants will then have the opportunity to pitch their product to a panel of judges on September 15. The panel of judges will be made up of farmers, processor partners, and Midwest Dairy staff.

After the winner is chosen, they will get the sole rights to operate out of a Midwest Dairy sponsored kitchen on The Hatchery's campus in Garfield Park in Chicago. Throughout the six months, the winner will have wrap-around support services from The Hatchery team and quarterly check-ins with the Midwest Dairy team.

By doing a pitch contest in our most populated city, we are not only exposing consumers to innovative dairy products but also creating checkoff advocates by inviting our processor partners to become judges. The opportunity to judge has been shared with all of our MDFRC industry members. There has already been great interest from them in being a part of the pitch contest.

Check out the new scorecard video and update Twice per year, Midwest Dairy publishes a scorecard quantifying our efforts to make every drop count for you, the dairy farmers. Learn more about the metrics tracked and the ways Midwest Dairy is working hard to grow trust and demand in dairy through this NEW video bringing to life the scorecard. Click here to watch this video.

Midwest Dairy partners celebrate National Dairy Month June Dairy Month at Hen House Markets Hen House Markets, a grocery retailer in Kansas, kicks off June Dairy Month in partnership with Midwest Dairy. In May, Hen House's agency visited LinCrest farms in Linwood, Kansas, where they recorded a video as part of their series "A Day in the Life of a Farmer." This video was distributed through email and Facebook on June 7 and will also be used by Hen House who will have three more social posts featuring facts about dairy. Midwest Dairy also sponsored a recipe video with local chef Jasper Mirabile titled "Milk and Honey Chicken.” Hen House is testing in-store marketing to coincide with the digital and email mentioned above. The in-store components will feature QR codes to Chef Jasper's recipe and a promotion about butter as coordinated by Hen House’s dairy category manager.

Harps Food Stores celebrates National Dairy Month Beginning June 15th, Midwest Dairy partnered with Harps Food Stores out of Springdale, Arkansas to highlight June Dairy Month. Harps has 116 total store locations, all within the Midwest Dairy region.

Harps weekly circular ad was distributed building trust in dairy by featuring messaging about the local Crawley Family Farm. The dairy category manager at Harps worked with his vendor network to support our trust work to drive additional sales. This same messaging was then distributed in an email blast out to Harps' customer base as well as posted to their Facebook page.

Midwest Dairy patners with Dairy Farmers of Wisconsin and Kwik Trip for National Dairy Month Midwest Dairy, Dairy Farmers of Wisconsin, and Kwik Trip have partnered for this year's National Dairy Month asking consumers to support local dairy farmers.

Included in this event are four Kwik Trip app promotions and an in-store signage program (all brands featured where picked by Kwik Trip). These promotions include: Spend $5 or more on Nature's Touch ice cream, milk, or butter and earn $.05/gallon in fuel discounts.

Purchase a Nature's Touch milk pint and receive a free cake donut.

Buy one whole Cheese Mountain Pizza and earn 10 visit points.

Purchase a fresh case salad and receive a free 1 oz. Kitchen Cravings string cheese.

Included in this event, and paid for by Dairy Farmers of Wisconsin (DFW), will be in-store signage asking consumers to support local dairy farmers. These signs will include the DFW logo as well as our Undeniably Dairy logo. Also, an email activation will be sent out to all Kwik Trip consumers that talks about the 13 essential vitamins and nutrients found in milk.

Fareway Foods partners with Midwest Dairy for National Dairy Month Midwest Dairy partnered with Fareway Foods for a National Dairy Month Dairy Palooza. This month-long event will include the following promotions and visuals: Month-long homepage banner on Fareway.com Dedicated dairy message email sent to Fareway customers 90-second dairy video playing in all stores, talking about the goodness of dairy to consumers as they are shopping the dairy department Weekly social posts with great dairy recipes An opportunity for Fareway consumers to win prizes for the best dairybased recipes Radio, digital and social outreach aligns dairy farmers with Earth Day Midwest Dairy's integrated campaign in the St. Louis market to align with participation at the two-day Earth Day Festical secured more than 3.4 million impressions. Together with 106.5 The Arch, the city's top radio station for women 25-54, the partnership promoted the sustainable dairy practices of dairy farmers and nutrition of dairy products.

The campaign targeted consumers through radio, digital and social outreach, and influencer engagement. Highlights include on-air radio personality Brando who served as spokesperson and gave voice to 178 promos including traffic reads, endorsements and call-ins, delivering more than 2 million impressions during a three-week period. The on-air content spotlighted dairy’s sustainability and nutrition story and Brando’s appearance at the festival.

Digital and social media efforts on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and a website landing page garnered more than 1 million impressions. Through The Arch’s channels, the campaign deployed an email with an open rate of 23.3 percent; the average media open rate is 21 percent. Also, with their own authentic voice, cultural influencers shared dairy’s story creating engagement with their followers on Instagram and TikTok. More than 289,000 impressions were received through influencers’ feeds and additional paid promotions. For example, Jess, a mother of two, participated and shared using Instagram. The paid promotion across the campaign delivered an engagement rate (social media reactions, comments, shares, or saves) of 1.98 percent; the industry average is 0.6 percent.

Fareway Foods NDM Promotion

Facebook posted on Hen House Markets social platforms.

Seeking families and females consumers where they are Children’s Museum educates on Dairy Does Too with virtual scavenger hunt Kearney Area Children’s Museum (KACM), a previous recipient of Midwest Dairy funding to enhance their Agriculture Exhibit, sees the importance of educating youth on where their food comes from. In an effort to bring digital entertainment opportunities to partners, Midwest Dairy recently developed a “Dairy Does Too” themed virtual scavenger hunt that encouraged members and social media followers to participate to be entered to win a party at the museum, a University of Nebraska at Kearney Sports Fan package, or Undeniably Dairy swag.

Kicking off the month-long Earth Day scavenger hunt on April 22, participants posted photos of their favorite dairy treats, shared how they do self-care, answered dairy nutrition trivia, and visited the KACM agriculture exhibit. Each question had an underlying theme tying back to how dairy farmers also care.

There were over 50 submissions sharing how kids stay active, cook with and eat dairy, use new technology, feel good and get comfy.

This pilot served as a valuable learning experience and case study to share with other museums, schools, and youth organizations on how digital platforms can be leveraged to simultaneously educate and entertain.

KS95's Spa & Sip campaign blends wellness and dairy Midwest Dairy partnered with Hubbard and KS95 for an Earth Day activation in the Minneapolis-St. Paul market with a goal to align Midwest Dairy sustainability messages with Earth Day to reach a Gen Z and parents of Gen Z. The activation’s messaging blended sustainability and wellness themes, showing KS95’s audience the way dairy helps fuel general well-being in a sustainable way.

This campaign enticed listeners to enter a contest to attend a Spa & Sip event at Prose Nails in Edina, Minnesota. The salon experience made guests feel pampered while they learned about sustainability through on-site messaging, swag bags, and a live interview with Princess Kay. Princess Kay also participated in a KS95 "After Hours" podcast interview where her messaging focused on the ways dairy farmers incorporate sustainable methods. This podcast episode had 2,300 downloads. The campaign surrounding this wellness event made almost 3.5 million impressions across on-air, digital, and social media, with well above-average and above-goal results for impressions, click-throughs, and engagement. On TikTok alone, influencer posts delivered 656,000 impressions, and each of the campaign’s Instagram Stories posts reached over 900 accounts. The digital campaign drove traffic to a landing page where listeners could enter to win a ticket to the event and learn more about dairy's sustainability story.

Post-event survey results showed that 90 percent of respondents consume dairy every day, in line with our most recent research from Aimpoint; because of the event, 70 percent said they were more likely to include a dairy product in their next meal.

Guests enjoyed a cheesy spread and milk-based drinks at the KS95's Spa & Sip campaign.

KACM Hands On Milking Experience Nebraska dietetic interns with Sevastian Banuelos visiting Prairieland Dairy.

Building relationships with important thought leaders Preparing dietetic interns to work with the media Midwest Dairy partnered with Amanda Jochum, a Registered Dietitian (RD) at Hy-Vee, and Mitch Rippe with the Nebraska Beef Council to provide 16 dietetic interns from the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) and the University of Nebraska at Lincoln (UNL) a media experience.

Health professionals serve as the number one trusted source for dairy information for a majority of consumers, lending to the importance of RD’s visibility in the media. These future RDs visited the 1011 News station in Lincoln, Nebraska, to view a live segment and a Q&A with news anchors Jon and Taryn Vanderford. They then put what they learned into practice by pitching, developing, and delivering their own interviews.

Dietetic intern directors note this experience provides an unmatched opportunity that interns wouldn’t otherwise get. Interns indicated a better understanding of the media and higher confidence in working with the media following this training.

Avera Heart Hospital partnership features DASH meal plan guidelines that favor dairy Midwest Dairy recently partnered with the Avera Heart Hospital and North Central Heart to build trust in dairy with credentialed health professionals and ultimately reach their patient/client audience. The Avera Heart Hospital was looking to update its standard heart health education for both inpatients and outpatients. They wanted to move away from specific sodium restriction guidelines to a more relaxed approach showcasing the well-known DASH diet, of which dairy is an important component.

Midwest Dairy provided subject matter expertise and guidance with a graphic designer, resulting in a new resource that not only includes dairy but also promotes a variety of fat levels in milk to improve heart health.

Building relationships with environmental leaders On June 17, the Mid-America Regional Council's (MARC) Food Waste and Loss Advisory Council had the opportunity to learn about dairy’s sustainability story. Dairy farmer Orville Miller visited with the advisory council and shared the waste reduction efforts he has implemented on his farm and the Net Zero goals for the industry.

The advisory council is made up of various agencies, companies, organizations, and city/county governments across the greater Kansas City nine-county metropolitan area working to create a food waste and loss action plan. In addition to creating the action plan, the council will be working to build a web map that will help bring stakeholders together as well as a public education campaign for consumers. The goal of the plan is to decrease food waste across all areas of the food chain.

Midwest Dairy partnered with the Avera Heart Hospital and North Central Heart in Sioux Falls, SD to update their patient education resources.

Interns with news anchors Taryn and Jon Vanderford of 1011 News

Arkansas / Missouri / Oklahoma Stacy Dohle 417-298-2780 sdohle@midwestdairy.com

Illinois Kendra Anderson 309-825-2196 kanderson@midwestdairy.com

Iowa Mitch Schulte 319-775-3451 mschulte@midwestdairy.com

Kansas Ron Grusenmeyer 816-873-0351 rgrusenmeyer@midwestdairy.com

Minnesota Lucas Sjostrom 320-249-8701 lsjostrom@midwestdairy.com

Nebraska Tracy J Behnken 531-207-4291 tbehnken@midwestdairy.com

North Dakota Beth Bruck-Upton 402-707-9135 bupton@midwestdairy.com

South Dakota Tom Peterson 605-251-2439 tpeterson@midwestdairy.com

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