Tillamook is an independent dairy cooperative from Oregon.
For 108 years, Tillamook's farmer-owners have marched to their own beat. As a values-driven company, they maintain stubbornly high standards, insisting on the highest quality milk and refusing to compromise craftsmanship for profit like the bulk of the corporate, Big Food industry.
In 2016, Tillamook's goal was to claim leadership in Real Food. Social media was crucial to that goal because it allowed us to help empower people everywhere to choose Real Food, in their own way, in their own lives. Instagram led the charge with the goals of:
1. Generating buzz around Tillamook as Real Food.
2. Provoking people to choose Real Food and Tillamook.
3. Ultimately, growing our cult (a.k.a. fans and followers!)
The strategy for Instagram was to lead an uprising against the CPG world of Big Food by championing Real Food for all–especially delicious Tillamook dairy.
Our content strategy had three pillars to mobilize fans in the name of Real Food from Tillamook farmers:
1. Spark understanding of Big Food vs. Real Food: Push off artificial Big Food, and open consumers' eyes to what Real Food is. In the process, reinforce Tillamook's steadfast farmer values to strengthen our Real Food message
2. Celebrate Real Food during micro-moments of relevancy: Activate consumers with Real Food content that speaks to their lifestyle. Push off consumer behaviors, seasonality and smaller cultural moments to capture Real Food attention.
3. Provoke Real Food action: To get consumers not only talking but also eating Real Food we launched an influencer program called #RealFoodSunday. Every week, we worked with different foodie Instagram creators from across the country to inspire and equip people to make fresh, delicious Real Food meals every week.
To bring our strategic approach to life, the creative content juxtaposed the sins of our Big Food competitors against our own virtues–we're independent, farmer-owned, Real Food producers.
Visually, it was unlike any dairy feed to date—equal parts disruption and deliciousness, and more punk-rock than CPG. In making all our content, we leveraged executional techniques that are native to the channel–like split-screen images, boomerangs, gifs, and memes–to ensure we'd be talking to Instagrammers in their own language. Our unique tone cut through the noise with blunt honesty and authentic farmer know-how.
Beyond a scroll-stopping look and feel, we wanted our feed to impact our consumers' daily lives beyond their devices. We offered them utility with Real Food tips, hacks, recipes and ingredient education. And, of course, we had food porn shots that stoked cravings for Tillamook with aggressive appetite appeal.
Overall, our Instagram feed inspired, educated and equipped our fans to kick lazy, artificially-laiden Big Food to the curb once and for all.
2016 was a big year of growth for Tillamook's Instagram and the channel played a major role in mobilizing our fans around our larger brand mission to become a Real Food leader.
The biggest wins for the channel were:
1. It sparked a ton of conversation around Tillamook as Real Food: We generated more organic conversation around Tillamook on Instagram, driving 34% more usages of our hashtag compared to 2015.
2. We not only galvanized buzz, we also stoked actions: Our post engagement skyrocketed, hitting nearly 900,000 likes and comments in 2016, which is more than 10x what we had in 2015.
3. People flocked to our brand: One of the highest forms of success is to get someone to follow us on Instagram. In 2016, we increased our follower count by +70%, acquiring more followers than in 2015.
