Launched earlier this year, the new Dairy Australia proactive approach to communications, called Dairy Matters, has achieved widespread media coverage, shining a light on dairy, demonstrating it's a responsible industry that understands consumers' concerns.
Designed to drive consumer trust in the industry and dairy products, the campaign is being delivered through ads featuring dairy farmers running across television, cinema and the web, as well as interactive online and community engagement activities.
Dairy Australia's communications strategy manager Glenys Zucco said farmers might have already noticed the ads, which often ran in prime time on television, highlighting the importance of dairy to the Australia community.
"The ads show how the dairy industry is focused on sharing our industry values and standards, by letting dairy farmers do the talking about how they care about for the environment, their animals and the products they produce," Ms Zucco said.
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Along with television, the campaign has placed farmers and product stories in high-profile online media publications such as The Guardian and Mamamia.
Ms Zucco said while it was still important to promote dairy's nutritional value, the new approach was necessary to keep pace with the changing expectations of society around issues such as animal welfare, climate change and the industry's long-term sustainability.
Along with the new website dairymatters.com.au, which has been developed to provide a central source of credible information about dairy, a feature of the campaign is the You Ask, We Answer functionality, using the latest research and industry experts to answer questions asked by consumers.
Results from the campaign so far, have revealed health and nutrition is the number one issue concerning consumers interacting on the You Ask We Answer webpage, accounting for 30 per cent of inquiries.
Ms Zucco said while consumers were asking a lot of questions about nutrition it was closely followed by animal welfare accounting for 15pc, while 10pc of questions were around how dairy was processed.
The ads show how the dairy industry is focused on sharing our industry values and standards, by letting dairy farmers do the talking...
- Glenys Zucco
Other issues covered included questions around the environment and the support available for farmers.
"Building trust with consumers is key to ensuring we have sustainability for the industry, for the long-term and the community needs to be assured that we are committed to responding responsibly," Ms Zucco said.
"Consumers are being hit with a huge range of information sources, not all credible, and we have to make sure the real story of dairy is cutting through with consumers, despite the misinformation that often surrounds food and nutrition.
"Through the Dairy Matters campaign and You Ask, We Answer, consumers can see we are transparent and accountable and are an industry willing and able to adapt to a changing global and domestic environment."
The Dairy Matters communications campaign and website are running alongside a comprehensive engagement program, which has included a farm visit with key influencers including dietitians, veterinarians and environmental experts.
"This approach ensures those having a large impact on consumers' opinions, are armed with the very latest consumer research," Ms Zucco said.
Celebrating World Milk Day
On June 1, communities around the world celebrated World Milk Day, to highlight the importance of dairy to the global economy, farmer's livelihoods and people's health.
To support the celebrations, Dairy Australia led a local #Cheers to Milk campaign, encouraging Australian's to share their best milk moments with a picture or video for a chance to win a years' supply of milk from their local area.
Celebrities, food influencers, and everyday Australians shared their milk moments in a video that was shared on social media.
Celebrity chef, restaurateur, and farmer, Matt Moran, who was featured in the video, was keen to support the campaign in celebration of Australian dairy farmers.
"World Milk Day is a great way to do something healthy for yourself and celebrate the natural goodness of 'real' milk, while at the same time supporting Australia's dairy farmers," he said.
"With the dry conditions and high costs of feed and water being experience by many dairy farmers, it's now more important than ever for consumers to get behind dairy."
The video was viewed 26,000 times and social posts seen by 739,000 people.
World Milk Day activities were covered by media outlets including the Herald Sun and a segment on Channel 7's Sunrise program.
This story first appeared on Australian Dairyfarmer