Stonyfield Educates, Entertains Consumers

Londonderry, N.H. — Stonyfield embarked on its first yearlong campaign in January with the goal of bringing consumers "closer to the farm" and educating them on the origins and ingredients of their food. While past efforts of the organic yogurt company have focused on specific products or messages, says brand manager Lindsay Hardie, the "Know Your Food" initiative is "really the first time that we've created a unified message around all the products for one year."The company is continuously mining insights and quantitative data, but the real impetus for the campaign was focus groups conducted last year. "Stonyfield has always been about the education of organic and healthy living," Hardie says, "but we wanted to take it to the next level and get consumers information they wanted about their food and serve it up to them at different times during the year." She says Stonyfield is putting out this information in stages to make it more accessible to consumers, and tying the execution to other natural, organic brands brings like-minded products into the consumers' minds.By doing so, Stonyfield hopes to deepen engagement with its existing consumers – typically "lifestyles of health and sustainability" (LOHAS) females, age 25 to 55. "We want to make ourselves as valuable of a resource as we can to our loyal customers," Hardie says, adding that certainly attracting new fans is a secondary goal."Know Your Food" launched at the beginning of the year with a sweepstakes that concluded April 30. Social media, print and digital ads, lid promotion and in-store coupons invited consumers to visit IWillKnowMyFood.com (the campaign website designed by King Design, Jenkintown, Pa.) and submit photos of their refrigerators. The winner received four nights at a Vermont bed and breakfast, a farm experience, a fridge makeover, a consultation with a nutritionist, a year's worth of Stonyfield Organic products and a $500 healthy food shopping trip. Yogurt lids included the message: "Do something good for your health, your family and your future – make a resolution to know your food."Throughout 2012, website visitors can watch videos from health experts, organic farmers and growers; download the Environmental Working Group's shopper's guide to pesticides in produce; and learn more about organics and food production.In May, Stonyfield rolled out the "Great Food Find" – an interactive online scavenger hunt. Clues on the dedicated website and the brand's Facebook page led participants to nearly a dozen websites including Annie's Homegrown, Honest Tea and Nature's Path Foods, where they selected organic and natural items for virtual tote bags. "We have relationships with many other like-minded companies and often collaborate with them to leverage our programs and brands to each other's benefit," says Stonyfield's Lindsey Seavey, associate brand manager. Each discovery revealed food facts, and participants received coupons from the various brands while being entered to win a $15,000 kitchen makeover.Community marketing is key to the current leg of the campaign: "Stonyfield Food Superheroes" began June 15 and runs through September. A six-city tour is stopping in Philadelphia, Miami, New York, Chicago and Washington before concluding at the Life is Good Festival in Canton, Mass. At the tour bus as well as online, the lighthearted promotion – "we wanted to make it fun, taking some of the stigma away from organic," says Hardie – allows individuals to upload their photos and don superhero personas. For each one created, Stonyfield is donating $1 to FoodCorps (a nonprofit that works with schools to create healthier food environments)."It's about taking small steps in your life to make healthier choices," Hardie says, "and being rewarded for that." In addition to superhero-themed yogurt lids, the campaign is being promoted via Stonyfield's Facebook page, Facebook ads, Pinterest, Twitter and blogger outreach.Next up is a promotion focusing on recipes that begins with the fall harvest season and then ties into the holidays. Stonyfield is measuring success by the number and quality of impressions.

Stonyfield Educates, Entertains Consumers

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