Grain Foods Foundation
Creative concepts, Infographics, Microsite, National PR Campaign
challenge
The Grain Foods Foundation (GFF) represents the nation’s grain producers, whose primary product is the bread we all buy in grocery stores. Recent news and diet trends have led many to believe that grains in general, and store-bought breads in particular, are not healthy. This has led to flat or declining bread sales nationwide. The fact is, however, that the GFF has developed a wealth of credible research that demonstrates the important role bread should have in our diets.
strategy
Research revealed that while recent trends have filled consumers with guilt, they continue to love bread. Our strategy was to give consumers permission to love bread again. We launched a campaign that was light-hearted but fully backed by real science. Research pointed us to two key audiences: health and fitness oriented younger adults and 50-plus adults. To make the most of our budget, we primarily targeted influencers to reach these groups: health and nutrition communicators, bloggers, podcasters, industry leading consultants, dietitians and more.
Public relations was our primary method of outreach: press releases, bylined articles, speaking engagements and social media. This also meant partnering with key trade groups and connecting with networks of strong food and nutrition communicators. We developed a microsite (longlivegrains.org) to make it easy for writers and editors to add interesting content to their outlets: infographics, recipes, photos, stories, and research studies that made the hard science interesting and easy to grasp.
results
Our outreach plan to engage nutrition influencers, health communicators, and key media was wildly successful. Within 12 months of engagement, we earned more than 1.2 billion media impressions, far exceeding their 500 million goal. Influencers and media flooded the website, resulting in a 72% increase in unique visits from the previous year. View a short video overview of the campaign showing more creative content we developed and editorial coverage we earned.