Connecting with Consumers

Simmering and Boiling Our Way to Success

By Jennifer Kyle, Manager of Public Engagement and Digital Strategy jennifer@ontariobeef.com • www.ontbeef.com

Last year left a bitter taste for people across the country and around the globe. For BFO, however, there was a bright spot in the mess that was the year 2020: our Ontario Beef consumer engagement strategy. 2020 was planned to be the first full year implementing our new Ontario Beef consumer engagement strategy. When COVID hit in March 2020, we were fortunate we had planned the majority of our strategy to take place on social media. With a few small tweaks to our plans and messaging, and some funds redirected from in-person events toward boosting our social media activity, we were able to hit the ground running while other brands and organizations spent time reworking their plans.

We took a “simmer and boil” approach. All year we maintained a constant presence on our social channels with both paid and organic content, which kept our efforts “simmering.” Then, twice throughout the year, we cranked things up to a boil with two largescale promotional campaigns. This simmer and boil approach paid off with impressive 2020 results. We ran an efficient and cost-effective strategy resulting in significant impressions, reach, engagement and visits to the ontbeef.ca website. Let’s take a look at the overall numbers from 2020.

What do these numbers mean?

They mean our content showed up in social feeds and in front of people 43.7 million times and reached 7.5 million individuals. They mean people took the time to interact with our content in some way (like, share, comment, link click, etc.) 1.1 million times, and 65,000 people visited our new website as a result of seeing our content. These numbers are fantastic. If you factor in our modest budget, we were able to make significant impact for a moderately low investment overall in 2020.

How did the “boiling points” influence the results?

As mentioned, we ran two large-scale campaigns throughout the year where we ramped up our activity and investment to focus our messaging and provide our audience with a specific call to action within a set timeframe.

The first of these campaigns was our “Ontario Beef Burger Battle” that ran in the summer. It was designed to celebrate local recipes in the height of grilling season and generate awareness of Ontario beef. Our four burger battle competitors duked it out on social media to see whose Ontario beef burger creation would reign supreme. The campaign generated a lot of great buzz and engagement from our community, which resulted in a lot of fantastic “user-generated content” (content shared by our followers) that we were able to use to bolster our own efforts. What did the numbers look like?

The number of visits to our site shows this campaign really focused on getting people to our website for the competing burger recipes. This campaign alone generated 65 per cent of the website visits for 2020!

Our second boiling point was our “Ask Your Local Butcher” campaign that ran through the end of the year. This campaign was designed to position local butchers as a knowledgeable source that can guide consumers’ culinary adventures and introduce them to the endless possibilities of Ontario beef. Our goal was to emphasize the benefits of visiting with a butcher to demystify the meat counter. Ultimately, we wanted shoppers to ask for Ontario beef, and when they weren’t sure where to find it, to visit the store locator on our website. How did we do?

Most interesting here are the inverted numbers compared to the burger battle. In this campaign, we used transit shelter (bus stop) ads in Toronto, Ottawa and Kitchener-Waterloo in addition to the same social media tactics we used in the first campaign. Each ad was paired with a butcher shop located within a five-kilometre radius of the bus stop, and the ad directed viewers to visit that shop to ask for Ontario beef. These shops were outfitted with corresponding promotional materials to tie it all together. The transit ads significantly bumped the impressions and reach, but because we were reaching people out of their home and, theoretically, away from their device, we didn’t see the increases in engagement and web traffic the way we did with the burger battle. This campaign was certainly more about awareness and encouraging in-store behaviour. Both campaigns were successful with their individual strengths, which is great to see.

To see the great content from these campaigns as well as our other “simmering” activity, be sure to follow us on social media.

What’s coming up in 2021?

As we work to build on the momentum generated in 2020, we have some great plans for 2021. Watch for us to continue the “simmer and boil” approach on our social channels, where we will engage the talents of several food influencers throughout the year. We will have two largescale campaign windows again this year, the first of which will kick off in July, so stay tuned for details coming soon. Are you a podcast listener? We will also try our hand at podcast advertising later this year. When we know which podcast will air the ads, we will let you know so you can tune in!

Itching to get your hands on some fun swag to show or wear your love for Ontario Beef? Watch for a couple of pop-up swag shops to open up! Are your freezer beef sales still booming, and would you like some promo items to outfit your farm store, market stand, or even yourself? Contact Jenn at the BFO office for a list of what’s available for use at retail.

And, finally, we will be creating new videos, photography and recipes to keep our offerings fresh, partnering with AgScape to develop three curriculum-linked resources for use in classrooms, and participating either virtually or in-person at any events we can! OB