In 2012, the Milk Processor Education Program (MilkPEP, the organization behind the got milk? campaign), set out to ramp up sales of milk with a focus on the number one occasion for milk consumption: breakfast. The brand found that social media was buzzing about breakfast - with approximately 18 million conversations annually*– including real-time reports on what they’re eating and real angst when they’re out of milk. To capitalize on this untapped opportunity, the brand launched The Breakfast Project, a campaign that set out to listen, engage and influence via social conversations, boosting the mainstay classic to the cutting edge of digital marketing. The digital and social media efforts are part of a larger, multi-channel campaign designed to spotlight milk’s essential role in the breakfast-at-home routine and help encourage increased milk consumption through compelling, cross-platform content and strategically elevated engagement. OBJECTIVES - Specific digital/social media objectives are to positively impact: • AWARENESS: Increase the size of milk’s social network communities and the resulting online reach • ENGAGEMENT: Drive consumer and influencer engagement with The Breakfast Project messaging and content • ADVOCACY: Spur consumers to share messages and content with their online communities STRATEGY – Develop a real-time engagement and social listening approach designed to: • Make milk a larger part of the online breakfast conversation by listening and engaging with influencers and consumers, prompting them to share milk messaging out to their communities • Tell the breakfast-at-home-with-milk story through compelling content and syndicate it via multiple online channels • Use a combination of paid, earned and owned tactics to grow existing social communities and extend the reach of milk’s breakfast content EXECUTION Social Listening and Engagement: Considering the large volume of real-time conversation on Twitter (http://twitter.com/milkmustache), we placed the majority of our engagement strategy and focus on that platform. Every weekday morning, community managers identified and intersected online breakfast conversations via a state-of-the-art Milk Command Center, using customized tools to efficiently and effectively identify conversations with the greatest potential to spread the milk-at-breakfast story. Surprise and Delights (Influencer Engagement): Takes the conversation offline with surprise milk deliveries to key influencers who post about being out of milk, which in turn drives further online engagement. Deliveries include Brooke Burke and Huffington Post Content Hub: http://thebreakfastproject.com serves as the home base for content, with tips, articles, videos and recipes that offer hundreds of ways and reasons to consume milk at breakfast. RESULTS – After nearly one year, the amped up engagement and content production stemming from The Breakfast Project campaign has achieved success against all of our objectives, increasing engagement by 195% (primary objective). Other key metrics: Awareness • 204% increase in Facebook “likes" (from 142K to 433K) • 95% organic increase in Twitter followers (from 4.9K to 9.5K) Engagement • 195% overall increase in weekly engagements with milk content across online properties (from 6K/week before to 18K/week during) Advocacy • Increase in milk content shares by twelve times (from 25/week to 345/week)
