The Milk Processor Education Program is changing the way we think about chocolate milk. Yes, it’s a kid favorite and many adults like it too, but you also may have heard that chocolate milk is a serious athlete recovery beverage?
That’s the message coming from an integrated campaign from MilkPEP, the milk industry’s marketing arm. The goal is to educate consumers on the benefits of drinking milk and to give them more reasons to drink milk.
“The challenge in a mature category is to reposition a product that 50 years ago was marketed as a kids’ treat, to being a serious athlete recovery beverage,” Julie Kadison, CEO, Milk Processor Education Program said yesterday at the 2015 BAASH in Chicago. “Those two things are about as far apart as you can get.”
About 8% of the milk category is flavored milk so MilkPEP knew it had plenty of room for growth. Add to that, some 63% to 81% of consumers like the taste of chocolate milk and, more importantly, that science has proven that chocolate milk helps athletes recover from a workout and MilkPEP was off and running.
“What pushed us into this campaign was the growing body of evidence that showed chocolate milk was a preferred recovery beverage,” she said. “More than 20 studies support the benefits of chocolate milk for post-exercise recovery. These are very prestigious publications and we wanted to take advantage of that science.”
Diving into a highly competitive category—Gatorade, Muscle Milk to name a few—MilkPEP launched the “Build with Chocolate Milk” campaign. The campaign encompasses, strategic partnerships with top athletes and brands, TV, print, events, retail, ambassadors, social, content, earned media and digital.
“We knew we could place a positive halo over milk with athletes who really care about what they put in their body,” Kadison said.
The opportunities for the campaign were to engage new and lapsed users to drive incremental growth for chocolate milk. The objective was to get athletes to start consuming chocolate milk after exercising.
“The campaign was insight driven,” she said. “There was lots of research with consumers about what’s the right message. Research helped define the target. We didn’t want to waste money on people who would never drink chocolate milk after exercise.”
So how to get that message out?
“We know authenticity is really important,” Kadison said. “The athletes we use in campaign have chocolate milk stories and they really believe in the product. It’s really a story sell. You have to talk about it. It’s not something that comes across in a few bites or clips.”
One of those athletes is two-time Olympic Gold Medal speed skater Apolo Ohno. When he was younger, training under the watchful eye of his dad, his dad would bring him chocolate milk after his workouts to help him recover.
With Ohno on board, MilkPEP launched “MissionApolo” last year. Ohno embarked on an eight-month journey of training and recovery with the goal of competing in the Iron Man competition last October. His journey was documented in a series of long and short-form webisodes that kept the conversation alive to build awareness, education and engagement. The videos drew 2 million views. Twitter bumped up 42% and growth on Instagram soared 204%, she said.
Joining Ohno on his journey was Jen Ator, a fitness editor for Women’s Health. She helped make the story more related to the average athlete, and women (Ohno, as we know, also captivates women). She wrote a lot about her journey, engaging million of active women through social media and magazine coverage. The athletes met with other athletes one-on-one at the finish line at expos and races.
“We knew we could place a positive halo on milk for athletes who really care what they put in their body,” she said. “In an eight-month long program you optimize as you go to become more efficient.”
The partnership with the Iron Man competition, the preeminent triathlon and the pinnacle of endurance sports, draws the elite of the elite.
“The credibility it brings is unprecedented,” Kadison said. “It’s very relevant to the target audience and they helped with reach and engagement through their Iron Man channels.”
MilkPEP partnered with many other brands and athletes including, professional basketball player Kevin Love, three-time Iron Man champion Craig Alexander, world champion triathlete Mirinda Carfrae, Trek, the bike company, Newton Shoes and others.
So how did a speed skater transitioning from short-track 8-second racing to the long-haul training for an endurance event like the Iron Man? Ohno finished the Iron Man World Championship at Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, in nine hours and 52 minutes landing in the top 15% of the field, among unheard of for a first timer. Jen beat her personal goal with a time of 13 hours and 17 minutes.
This year, MilkPEP is expanding the campaign with pillars throughout the year based on different sports. One pillar just launched with basketball player Kevin Love.
“It will keep people interested and engage a lot more people,” Kadison said.
Takeaways:
- Authentic activation with year-round “always on” touch points.
- Activated Iron Man sponsorship across all relevant channels—MilkPEP, Iron Man and its partners.
- Partners (and partners of partners) extended reach, efficiency.
- Content was syndicated to a highly engaged and influential audience via partners’ channels.
- Ongoing analysis, optimization
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