During the holiday season in November and December, Midwest Dairy partnered with Chicory and Instacart to implement a multi-channel marketing strategy to increase demand for dairy products across the 10-state region. Midwest Dairy collaborates with partners to keep dairy products prominent on shoppers’ grocery lists and encourages them to integrate dairy into new recipes. The campaign highlighted products such as milk, sour cream, butter, cream, cheese, and yogurt. Both vendors utilized cohesive materials, making the campaign recognizable to consumers while shopping online or seeking recipes.
Chicory, a third-party vendor, drives sales through digital recipe inspiration. Currently, 91% of shoppers regularly use online recipes. These shoppers see product ads when searching by keywords, exploring recipe categories, or looking for specific usage occasions. When they click on an ad to “shop for butter, cheese, or yogurt,” they are redirected to Instacart to add these ingredients to their online shopping cart. These campaigns collectively generated over 45 million incremental pounds of milk in the Midwest Dairy Region, with milk, lactose-free milk, and cheese being the top performers.
Holidays drive considerable dairy consumption, with retailers reporting a 50% increase or more in online grocery shopping. During the holiday season, there is often a noticeable increase in recipe searches, which can rise by 30% or more, prompting consumers to seek out ingredients that lead to additional grocery purchases. The positive results from these campaigns demonstrate the importance of engaging in digital tactics to drive incremental dairy sales. These campaigns engaged consumers at various stages of their shopping journey to enhance dairy sales through recipes and shoppable dairy content ads on digital devices.