8 minute read
Consumer Engagement
As shared in last year’s report, 25 cents of the $1.50 provincial check-off increase, implemented in November 2019, stays with BFO to support producer and consumer engagement activities. While a lot of work in 2019 focused on rebranding Make it Ontario Beef to our new Ontario Beef identity, 2020’s efforts were spent putting our new strategy into action, engaging directly with the public to drive awareness and purchase of Ontario beef.
Ontario Beef supports all Ontario beef industry stakeholders by laying the foundation for the promotion of ALL Ontario beef products and the entire industry. Our focus is entirely on Ontario consumers and our efforts support the Ontario Beef Market Development Program, as well as individual farmers, brands, retailers, etc.
The focus of our consumer engagement program in 2020 was getting our content in-market, building relationships with influencers and partners, and continuing to build the Ontario Beef brand story with the public. Fortunately, the vast majority of our new strategy was designed to be carried out digitally. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March 2020, we had to make minor tweaks to some of our key campaigns with respect to some of the in-person activity that was planned, but overall, we were able to execute our digital media strategy as planned, and have done so with excellent results. While it looked a little different than what we had originally planned, 2020 was still a very busy year spent building momentum with our audiences:
Ontbeef.ca
Traffic to the consumer website continues to increase steadily. Both of the key campaigns that were run through our social channels throughout the year were focused on driving traffic to different areas of the site, and did so with great success. Website visits increased by 800 per cent over the course of the year, and 95 per cent of the visitors were first-time visitors to the site.
We continue to update and tweak the site regularly to ensure it is always fresh and that new content is highlighted. Our store locator continues to be one of the most popular stops for visitors to the website, so we continue to promote the opportunity for butchers, retailers and farmers marketing direct. Currently, there are about 130 retailers included in the locator, but we recognize there are still others who may wish to be included in the listings. An application form is available from the office for those wishing to have their retail business added to the map.
As part of the website and consumer engagement strategy, a new e-newsletter for Ontario beef enthusiasts will launch in 2021.
Social Media
The focus of our Ontario Beef social media channels in 2020 was to use our content to build an engaged audience across each of our channels, with the bulk of the effort put toward Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest. We also launched our first paid social media, which helped our content find its way in front of those who would be most interested, but who we had not yet connected with. In addition to the regular paid and organic content, we also ran two separate targeted influencer campaigns that helped amplify our messaging at specific times.
The first campaign was the “Ontario Beef Burger Battle”, which ran in July and August. The Ontario Beef Burger Battle campaign was designed to celebrate local recipes in the height of grilling season and generate awareness of Ontario beef, keeping it top of mind for our consumers during this key period.
The campaign was a burger creation competition between selected foodoriented social media influencers around Ontario (mostly in the GTA), hosted and judged by Gunnarolla (aka Andrew Gunadie). Influencers were selected based on their location and social media following, as well as their ability to bring a unique burger recipe to life – inspiring our consumers to ask for Ontario beef. Each influencer showcased their unique burger recipe, which was shared through their own channels, as well as ours. Social content encouraged participation, asking fans to share their own recipes with #ontbeefburgerbattle and driving people to a landing page where consumers could get recipes from the competition and learn more about Ontario beef.
The competition was all virtual, with DIY footage, sharing and hosting. A “hub” was created on the ontbeef.ca website to serve as a home for each burger master’s video creation. All the recipes are also now available on the hub, as well as in the website’s recipe database.
Our second key campaign was our “Ask Your Local Butcher” campaign, which as the name suggests, was focused on encouraging consumers to visit local butchers and retailers and ask for Ontario beef. Particularly with shifts brought on by the pandemic, shopping local has never been more important to our consumers – they are more passionate than ever about sourcing their food locally and supporting their communities. This campaign was designed to position local butchers, retailers and farmers as a knowledgeable source that can guide consumers’ culinary adventures and introduce them to the endless possibilities of Ontario beef.
Once again, we worked with a social media influencer, Zimmy’s Nook, to generate some fantastic content that we used to draw attention to our messaging and drive followers to the store locator on our website. In addition, we did a modest media buy securing a number of transit shelter ads in the GTA, Ottawa and Kitchener-Waterloo areas. The transit shelter ads were placed strategically near butcher shops carrying Ontario beef products and directed consumers to visit those locations and ask for Ontario beef.
People were very engaged with the butcher-focused content, which was really well-received by both the consumer audience and the butcher/ retailer audience. Our transit shelter ads also made it onto social media thanks to a couple of butcher shops very excited about the partnership.
Overall, our social media results for 2020 were fantastic. Our content – both organic and paid – made well over 18 million impressions, reached over 3.7 million users, delivered over 780k engagements, and drove over 55k website visits. We also had some excellent learnings that will help us really hone in and target our messaging toward our different audiences as we work to build on the momentum in 2021.
Event Participation
One area of our workplan that was affected the most in 2020 was events. With all in-person events cancelled for 2020, we contributed and participated in a virtual capacity where applicable. We obtained a virtual booth at the Royal Agricultural Virtual Experience in the “Agriculture Zone” and welcomed over 400 virtual visitors over the four days. Our resources were viewed over 3,000 times, and our booth and materials will remain available to visitors for the rest of the year.
Video Production
Even despite the COVID-19 restrictions, we were still able to create a number of new video assets. We completed three new recipe videos, an environmental stewardship video featuring 2020 TESA winner Paul De Jong, and a few short environmental clips to be used on social media. Most notably, we also partnered with Farm and Food Care Ontario on a virtual 360-degree tour of a feedlot and cow-calf operation, and were pleased to have that launched in time for the virtual Royal Winter Fair. Thanks to the Brown and Nesbitt families for their help in making this project happen. The 360-degree video series can be found on our ontbeef.ca website and the Farm Food 360 website.
Photography
As with other things, COVID-19 foiled some of our photography plans for the year, however, we were able to capture some great on-farm shots in northern Ontario in the summer and with the McArthur family in the fall. We also did a mini beef “glamour” shoot to capture some specific images for our transit shelter ads and butcher campaign. Hopefully 2021 will let us get back on location safely to continue to build our library.
Education
With school looking different and being unpredictable since March, our approach to education needed to shift. As a result, we have strengthened our relationship with AgScape to work on getting our beef messaging in front of students. We were able to provide some resources for AgScape to include in their “Virtual Camp Experience” in the spring. We were also provided with the opportunity to review resources and lesson plans relevant to beef production to ensure the information accurately reflects the industry. Moving into 2021, we are looking forward to an education resource project in partnership with AgScape to develop curriculum-linked resources for use in classrooms to complement our current educational resource offerings. In September, we also had the opportunity to participate in a virtual education day put on by Western Fair.
Promotional Items and Resources
Throughout 2020, the team worked on several new resources that are now available. These resources include a recipe booklet that replaces our previous individual cards, a kids’ colouring book to replace the dated kids’ activity sheet, and a general Ontario beef brochure. To coincide with the launch of the “Ask Your Local Butcher” campaign, we also developed a number of promotional items to be used in-store or in general promotion of Ontario beef, and those are available through the office.
2020 was an interesting year with its own unique set of challenges, but overall, it was a very successful year for our consumer engagement program. We are continuing to build on the momentum in 2021 and also plan to test out some new tactics, such as podcast advertising and search engine marketing. Be sure to follow Ontario Beef on social media and visit our website to keep up to date on our consumer engagement efforts, and stay tuned to our magazine for regular updates on our activities.
