Pivoting Ontario Veal Marketing Strategies During a Pandemic By Jennifer Haley, Executive Director, Veal Farmers of Ontario
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here is no doubt that Covid-19 forced everyone to change their plans and programs quickly and adapt to the new realities of the marketplace. When the world shut down in mid-March, Veal Farmers of Ontario (VFO) was very concerned about what the impact this market disruption would have on veal processing and consumer consumption and in turn our supply chain. A very special thank you to all the veal processors and their employees who responded to the needs of consumers by keeping your plants operating at full capacity. VFO’s popular marketing program- the Search for Ontario’s Best Veal Sandwich with our celebrity judge John Catucciwas postponed due to Covid-19 restrictions. It was a difficult decision to make given the momentum that this campaign has created, but the right one to make given the circumstances. To help support our sandwich partners, VFO quickly reached out to the restaurants to help them promote on social media their take-out and curbside pickup veal sandwiches. With the shut-down of the foodservice, hospitality, and tourism sectors, VFO quickly worked on a targeted and ‘pivoted’ consumer marketing strategy aimed at getting consumers to purchase veal at retail- whether that was the local butcher or the grocery store- and cook more veal at home and work to ensure veal demand could be sustained. VFO immediately activated its consumer e-newsletter Vealing Delicious, moving from a monthly to a weekly format to bring awareness for veal recipes. Thankfully, in January several new veal recipes and photos had been created for use on our website, newsletter, social media channels and promotions. This gave us lots of new content to feature at a very critical time with consumers. A tweak to our consumer logo gave a subtle new look to our consumer brand. Some of the targeted Ontario Veal marketing strategies over the past few months have included: #VealAtHome Contest VFO launched this social media contest and awareness campaign in mid-April with the goal of creating engagement with our online followers as well as
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BlockTalk - Fall 2020
providing an incentive to cook with veal at home. We wanted to create an opportunity for consumers to win prizes by showing us how they are cooking with veal at home and to be proud of their veal recipe creations. The contest features monthly prizes for each of our social media channels (Instagram, Twitter, Facebook as well as email entries) and a Grand Prize draw in September from all eligible entries. The campaign has certainly generated a lot of engagement and ‘buzz’ with consumers and their followers as well. The contest has also driven an increase in our website traffic and our #VealAtHome contest page. Getting Veal on the BBQ with Ted Reader The BBQ season is traditionally veal’s lowest sales period of the year with consumers focusing on other proteins. VFO partnered with the ‘godfather of the grill’ Ted Reader to create a summer grilling campaign and leverage the BBQ enthusiasts who follow Ted on his social media channels. Ted generates a lot of engagement across Twitter, Facebook and Instagram with his dedicated carnivore followers who love grilling meat! The campaign featured a weekly Ontario Veal BBQ recipe, featuring various cuts of veal, created by Ted Reader and featured on his popular social media accounts and in VFO’s exciting Vealing Delicious e-newsletter that goes out to over 3,000 subscribers. The recipes have also been cross-posted to www.tedreader.com and www.ontariovealappeal.ca.
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