Selling it!
Florida citrus industry boosts consumption with extensive, health-focusedadvertising & promotionBy Dan Campbell, editor
T he Florida citrus industry has long been a food industry leader in promoting its juices and other products as key components in a healthy diet. These promotional and educational efforts have played a significant role in helping to boost the average per capita consumption of orange juice in the United States from 5.4 gallons per person in the mid- 1990s, to six gallons at present. This rise in consumption has come despite higher consumer prices.
Eric Boomhower, marketing communications director for the Florida Department of Citrus (Florida Citrus), shared insight on the strategies used to keep consumers coming back for more Florida OJ.
In 1996, Florida Citrus launched what it termed its “triple crown campaign,” which helped spread the word about recent scientific research linking citrus products to good health. Florida Citrus worked closely with the American Cancer Society, the American Heart Association and the March of Dimes in creating a series of new television commercials and print ads that trumpet these findings.
“We had to deliver a serious message about disease prevention in a way that would not turn off consumers,” Boomhower said. “We did this through a series of television advertisements, including one of the most popular TV spots we ever produced.”
Boomhower showed clips of the commercials, in which the narrator says that “The American Cancer Society says a healthy diet, including Florida orange juice, can reduce the risk of some cancers.” Having a well-respected third party as the source for the health message lends much greater credibility to it, he noted.
In another TV ad from the campaign, the narrator says: “The American Heart Association has certified that Florida grapefruit and orange juice are part of a hearthealthy diet.” The key message in another commercial is that: “The March of Dimes has found that the folic acid in orange juice can help prevent certain birth defects.”
This multi-million dollar advertising campaign was also supplemented by a series of three, 15- or 30-second public service announcements (PSAs) which stress the impact of diet on good health. Although a PSA “looks and feels like a TV commercial, they are different in several key ways,”
Boomhower said. Any commercial message in a PSA must be very subtle, with the weight of the message promoting some public good, such as disease prevention.
Florida Citrus secured the services of three, health-conscious celebrities who donated their services for the campaign: super-model Cheryl Tiegs, actress Lauren Bacall and tennis ace Pete Sampras. In each PSA, these celebrity spokesmen stress the need for a healthy diet as a way to help reduce your odds of falling victim to cancer. In two of the spots, the only link to orange juice is a visual product placement.
Cost for production and distribution per PSA was about $100,000. “It would cost more than that just for one 30- second commercial during prime time,” Boomhower noted. The American Cancer Society has also helped distribute the PSAs through its own channels. Health organizations quoted in the TV ads and PSAs are asked by Florida Citrus to review and approve them before they are aired.
While many of the airings for PSAs
occur “in the wee hours of the night”
or early morning, Boomhower said
they have also received prime-time
airings. This campaign also has
involved consumer brochures and the
side panels of orange juice and milk
cartons, which Boomhower said are
“like mini billboards in the store and
on your table.”Be ready to pounce on good news
When the scientific community produces a report that is favorable to your product, be ready to pounce.
Florida Citrus was aware that a 1999 Harvard University study found that drinking a glass of grapefruit or orange juice daily can reduce the risk stroke by 25 percent. So the same day the study results were announced in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Florida Citrus launched an integrated media campaign, starting with a TV commercial produced in partnership with the American Heart Association. The next day, print ads began appearing in major newspapers; a week later, print ads were appearing in national magazines.
Florida Citrus also did a major “PR blitz,” sending out print and video news releases that trumpeted the Harvard study findings to media in all major markets.
“This generated some big time TV placements for us,” Boomhower said. Coverage of the story was carried on the Today Show, CNN News, Fox News and other major news programs. Boomhower traveled to New York with one of the scientists who did the research. They met with the editorial staffs of a number of major health and lifestyle magazines, including “Family Circle” and “Women’s Day,” to talk about the role citrus juice can play in reducing stroke.
This PR effort generated more than 400 broadcast airings, with an estimated audience of 125 million. This helped drive a 21 percent increase in consumer recognition of the stroke reduction benefits of orange juice.
Another way to promote your story with the media is through a “satellite media tour.” Florida Citrus used this strategy when a University of Florida study showed the benefits of citrus juice in the diet. “For a satellite tour, your rent studio time and the media comes to you,” Boomhower said. “This is a neat, low-cost way to take your message out into the heart of the market,” Boomhower said.
Event sponsorship
Event sponsorship can also be used to publicize your product. Florida Citrus did this recently by sponsoring a cross-country bike ride by Bob Green, talk show hostess Oprah Winfrey’s personal fitness trainer. During media interviews as he pedaled his way across the nation, Green would tout the importance of a good diet – including orange juice – on health.
The sponsors reaped an unexpected media bonanza when Green was pedaling into Chicago for an appearance on the Oprah show. At one point in their conversation, Oprah exclaimed “I love Florida orange juice!” Boomhower said that hiring Oprah as a spokesperson would be beyond his budget, but they still got a lucky endorsement by working with Green.
“She said it spontaneously – we had no part in it,” Boomhower stressed. “We think we got a pretty big bang for our buck with this effort.” Total cost was $300,000.
Teenagers and children present special communications challenges because they care little about health messages, Boomhower said. So Florida citrus created a TV ad aimed at the young which promotes the energy-enhancing aspects of OJ, with the slogan: “Florida orange juice for energy – are you drinking enough?”
Boomhower said he must strive to show a balance of different Florida juice brands in print and broadcast ads. “We have to walk a fine line to make sure we don’t promote one brand more than another.”[end]
Better eating through biotechnology?
Tips shared for communicating about biotech food issues
Cooperatives and others in the food industry caught-up in the debate over food bio-technology—an “emotional and controversial” issue for some—need to develop a careful communications strategy based on solid science, says Cheryl Toner, associate director for health communications for the International Food Information Council (IFIC).“Be sensitive to the words you use and how they can impact your message,” Toner said. For example, the public tends to react negatively to the words “genetically engineered or genetically modified,” she said. However, describing the process as “food or agricultural biotechnology” elicits a more positive or neutral response from consumers. “When people hear the phrase ‘bioengineering,’ they think of food that has gone directly from the petri dish to their dinner plate, and that such food is just not natural,” Toner said.
“We must make the public understand that seeds are modified and planted in the ground by farmers, then grown and harvested just like other crops. It’s still agriculture.”
It is also a good idea to remind consumers that oversight of our food is provided by multiple, reliable government agencies, including USDA, FDA and EPA, Toner said.
“The ultimate issue in the minds of most consumers is: What does this mean for me at my dinner table?”
Stress the benefitsIt is important for co-ops that use biotechnology to explain the purpose and benefits of this new food technology, Toner said. “You can explain that biotech is an evolution of traditional agricultural practice, which has gone from using yeast in brewing and bread making, to advanced plant-breeding techniques to today’s biotechnology, which uses tools of genetics to add or extract select genes to achieve desired traits in plants.
“Keep the emphasis on the farmer’s role,” Toner stressed. She also urged communicators to cite specific examples of the benefits and goals of food biotechnology, such as:
• cooking oils that contain less saturated fats;
• safer animal feeds;
• better tasting, fresher foods;
• foods with enhanced nutrients;
• crops grown with less impact on the land due to reduced use of pesticides and more flexible weed controls;
• improved water quality protection and soil conservation.
While claims of absolute safety can never be made, food industry representatives can communicate accurate, up-todate scientific information that emphasizes the years of exhaustive research that have gone in to developing biotechnology.
She noted that this technology can be a valuable tool in the effort to fight global hunger.
