I’m a cattle producer. I’m a member of the Cattlemen’s Beef Board (CBB). I’m an underwriter for an agricultural lending company. But perhaps most importantly, I’m the mother of a teenage daughter. As my husband and I have navigated the challenges of parenthood, we’ve made a joint effort to understand social media and its impact. And while social media may have gotten its start with the younger generation, its eruptive growth has spread across audiences of all ages. That growth has led to the rise of influencer marketing as a popular way to promote products and services – yes, even beef.
But what makes someone an influencer? And why should the beef industry turn to this relatively new form of marketing? Don’t all the great qualities of beef – nutrition, taste, variety – speak for themselves? These are all questions that my fellow members of the CBB’s Domestic Marketing Committee and I had before we started investigating the world of influencer marketing. And here’s what we’ve learned.
Influencers are individuals with perceived expertise or knowledge about certain topics and a decent online following. Their followers view them as trustworthy experts in their fields, and they often have significant power over their audiences’ purchasing decisions. Their recommendations can help brands expand their reach and messages. And while beef does have a lot going for it, spreading the word about beef’s positive attributes to diverse audiences takes time and effort. That’s precisely why influencer marketing has become an important tool for the Beef Checkoff as it continues to drive beef demand.
Currently, 22 influencers are part of the Beef Checkoff’s Beef Expert Network. All are passionate about sharing beef’s story and promoting beef to their unique audiences. The Beef Checkoff-funded Beef. It’s What’s For Dinner. brand works to create long-term relationships with these individuals, and all must have previously expressed passion about beef. They must be credible in their fields, create interesting content – post copy, videos, photos, graphics – and share them with engaged audiences on multiple social media platforms.
Individuals in our Beef Expert Network fall into one of four categories. Food Influencers love food and center their content around recipes, cooking advice and entertaining tips and tricks. Culinary Influencers often own restaurants or culinary consulting companies. Some are even celebrity chefs, like Hugh Acheson, judge on the popular TV show Top Chef, and Josh Capon, chef and TV personality on the show Frankenfood. Ag Influencers are cattle producers who want to share accurate information about sustainable, humane production practices. Finally, Nutrition Influencers are trusted nutrition, health and fitness experts who provide health and wellness recommendations to consumers and their professional peers.
The Beef Checkoff creates educational opportunities to provide these influencers with the most up-to-date, beef-focused nutrition, research, culinary and production content. In this way, we can ensure our influencers’ content supports Beef Checkoff campaigns and promotes beef efficiently and effectively.
Where does all this content go? Influencers share it with their audiences across digital and social media platforms, but Beef. It’s What’s For Dinner. also uses it in its own marketing efforts, including social media. This strategy is especially beneficial with the Ag Influencer group because it helps consumers virtually meet beef farmers and ranchers and learn about beef production right from the source.
Content from the Beef Expert Network is also multipurposed as blogs and articles published in LA Weekly and The New York Times. Beef. It’s What’s For Dinner. also hosts media tours where TV and radio stations across the country can interview these influencers about all things beef.
Yes, beef’s great taste, variety and nutrition are important selling points. And, yes, social media is often a bit of a minefield, whether you’re a teenager or … someone more mature. But influencers can share all of beef’s outstanding qualities with their many social media followers. They can convince skeptical consumers to try new beef recipes, integrate beef into heart-healthy diets and discover the extreme care producers put into raising high-quality beef. In today’s world where people look to social media for guidance, influencer marketing is an indispensable tool for all kinds of products and services – including beef.
Sallie Miller, Briggsdale, CO, is a partner in Croissant Red Angus with her husband, Kevin, and parents Larry & Jean Croissant and also works full time as an underwriter for American AgCredit, a member of the Farm Credit System.
It’s time to fire up the grill and prepare for a sizzling summer full of beef! Launched over Memorial Day weekend, a brand-new Checkoff-funded Beef. It’s What’s For Dinner. grilling campaign is reaching consumers in new ways and encouraging them to add some spice to their summer recipes. From a partnership with NFL superstar Tony Romo, promotions with Kroger and Sam’s Club, and new radio and TV ads, inspired consumers will be served up delicious beef grilling recipes with tips and tricks for the barbeque, along with nutritional info. See what’s cookin’ and how it will come to life across all types of media, including print, digital, social, radio and TV.
Over the next few months, consumers will gather around the grill with family, friends and good food, and the Beef Checkoff is determined to ensure beef is on the menu. Consumers are likely to grill twice a week or more, and the average American grills an impressive 9.55 times per month1. Here are all the ways the Checkoff’s summer grilling campaign will keep beef top of mind.
All these efforts will drive people to Beef. It’s What’s For Dinner’s. website for all things grilling, including Tony Romo’s Playbook, which will feature recipes, grilling tips, quotes from Romo and summer grilling videos.
For years Beef. It’s What’s For Dinner. has promoted a summer grilling campaign, and it’s expected to only get better and better. Last year, paid advertising generated more than 84 million video views, 230,000 social media likes, shares and comments, 369,000 clicks to Beef. It’s What’s For Dinner. articles and recipes, 315,071 BeefItsWhatsForDinner.com pageviews and nearly 50,000 audio ad listens.
This year with a larger presence on Food Network, a brand-new partnership with ESPN digital and Tony Romo headlining as beef’s spokesperson, Beef. It’s What’s For Dinner. expects to see performance numbers increase.
Through amusing and engaging campaigns, like these summer grilling promotions, the Beef Checkoff works to position beef as the number one protein of choice. The promotion program broadcasts beef’s unique and core attributes and works to showcase the powerhouse nutrients beef provides while reminding consumers of the unbeatable pleasure that beef brings to meals. By doing all of this, the Beef Checkoff ultimately drives demand for beef and brings attention to the men and women who raise beef and feed the world.
With the eruptive growth of social media across audiences of all ages, influencer marketing has become an increasingly popular way to promote products and services. But what makes an influencer?
Influencers are individuals with perceived expertise or knowledge about niche topics and a significant online following. Their followers view them as trustworthy experts in their fields, and they can hold significant influence over their audiences’ purchasing decisions. Their recommendations can help brands expand their reach and message – and that’s precisely why the Beef Checkoff utilizes influencer marketing to help drive beef demand.
In total, 22 individuals are part of the Beef Checkoff’s Beef Expert Network of influencers who are all passionate about sharing beef’s story and connecting with their audiences to promote beef as the protein of choice. The Beef Checkoff-funded brand Beef. It’s What’s For Dinner. works with three types of influencers within the Beef Expert Network:
These are food lovers who center their content around recipes, cooking advice and entertaining tips and tricks. They share most of their food experiences on blogs and social media channels to loyal audiences interested in learning about new recipes.
These are trusted culinary professionals to whom consumers and other culinarians look for guidance. Many of these professionals own restaurants or culinary consulting companies; some are even TV personalities. Beef. It’s What’s For Dinner. has worked with numerous celebrity chefs, with two being Hugh Acheson, judge on the popular TV show Top Chef, and Josh Capon, chef and TV personality on the show Frankenfood.
These influencers are members of the beef industry who run their own cattle operations and want to share their beef stories with consumers. These advocates engage with audiences and the media to ensure accurate information about the beef industry is heard.
These are trusted and established nutrition, health and fitness experts who maintain professional credentials such as Registered Dietitian (RD), Medical Doctor (MD) or Certified Personal Trainer (CPT). They are considered thought leaders in their field and provide evidence-based, diet-related health and wellness recommendations to consumers and other health professional peers.
Beef. It’s What’s For Dinner. works to create long-term relationships with these individuals, and all must be a natural fit for the brand. To create authentic content, influencers must meet a certain set of criteria:
Most importantly, influencer marketing is a partnership, and the Beef Checkoff strives to build solid, productive relationships with these individuals.
The Beef Checkoff creates educational opportunities so its influencers can have the most up-to-date, beef-focused nutrition, research, culinary and production content. This information is delivered through webinars, conference session support, events, digital communications and hosted experiences.
This collaboration ensures influencer content supports Beef Checkoff campaigns and promotes beef efficiently and effectively. Once influencers create the content, they share it with their audiences across digital and social media platforms, but Beef. It’s What’s For Dinner. also utilizes their content in its own marketing efforts. To further extend the reach of influencer-curated messaging, Beef. It’s What’s For Dinner. spotlights this content on its social media platforms to reach new audiences. This strategy is especially beneficial with the Ag Influencer group because it helps consumer audiences meet beef farmers and ranchers and learn about beef production right from the source.
The Beef Expert Network contributes to paid digital content, including blogs and articles authored by influencers and hosted in urban news publications like LA Weekly and The New York Times.
Also, Beef. It’s What’s For Dinner. takes advantage of the popularity of their celebrity chefs and TV personalities and hosts media tours featuring these influencers. These media tours allow TV and radio stations across the country to interview the influencers about beef recipes and nutrition. In fiscal year 2021, Beef. It’s What’s For Dinner. hosted four satellite media tours, each resulting in an average of 20 interviews that aired more than 500 times.
For Beef. It’s What’s For Dinner., engagement is key. The goal is to have consumers click on the recipe and beef messaging links to learn more about beef and how to cook with it. Here are successes from recent influencer campaigns:
Fourteen food and culinary influencers posted beef summer grilling recipes on their social media channels in June, July and August.
Total Reach: 372,592
Total Engagement: 60,028
Five ag influencers shared their beef stories to celebrate National Ag Day. These social media posts received paid amplification to increase their reach and carry the agriculture message to new consumer audiences.
Total Reach: 490,867
Total Engagement: 5,027
Philips starred in a long-form YouTube campaign to develop videos on beef recipes for tailgating.
Video Views: 158,956
Total Reach: 275,526
Seven nutrition influencers shared social media posts to highlight beef in the early years and encourage parents, caregivers and doctors to make every bite count.
Total Reach: 232,139
Total Engagement: 80,876
Measurement cheat sheet:
Reach: The number of unique users who were shown a post during its lifetime.
Engagement: The total number of times that users reacted to, commented on, shared or clicked on a post during its lifetime.
Today, TikTok is a social media giant and a highly relevant social media platform, particularly for Gen Zs and millennials. With more downloads than even Facebook and Instagram, TikTok has more than 800 million monthly users worldwide. Because TikTok features so many key target audiences active in one space, the Beef Checkoff has joined in on the fun, promoting prepared beef and veal in unique and trendy ways.
The North American Meat Institute (NAMI) executes Checkoff-funded projects to promote prepared beef products. One goal is to get consumers to think about prepared products, like beef hot dogs, roast beef, corned beef and beef jerky in new and different ways – and TikTok is a platform where consumers embrace creativity. The food side of TikTok is one of the most popular and trending areas on the app. Here, users can find at-home, professional and celebrity chefs. To capitalize on food’s popularity on TikTok, NAMI ran three campaigns with the Food Renegades, the largest alliance of social media chefs in the world with 40 million followers combined.
The Checkoff-funded brand Veal – Discover Delicious has also been using TikTok to showcase veal’s versatility. Veal – Discover Delicious partnered with popular TikTok food creators to introduce veal to consumers and open their eyes to new recipe concepts.
These TikTok tournaments and highly engaging campaigns have brought out the originality in food creators. Prepared beef products were shown in shakshuka, Reuben casserole and even beef hot dog octopuses. Also, veal was highlighted in different burger and taco recipes.
The Beef Checkoff is excited to be working on new TikTok campaigns for the future and is consistently monitoring new technologies and platforms to continue reaching and engaging new audiences to drive demand for beef.
