Situation

Research shows that trust in farmers grows when consumers know they are family farmers. With 96% of all farms in Illinois being family owned, the Illinois Beef Association wants to showcase a local farm family behind our food and what they’re doing to raise beef more sustainably than ever before.

Objective

Raise awareness of and build trust in Illinois beef farmers among Chicagoland parents.

Approach

We start with a video and photo shoot at the Martz family farm, sharing the story of a young, enterprising farm family that’s making positive choices to produce sustainable beef and leave things better for the next generation. With this story as the foundation, everything we create revolves around a key message of feeling good about choosing great-tasting beef raised responsibly by local Illinois family farmers – simplified into a themeline of Family owned. Responsibly raised. Close to home.

A 1-minute video is promoted through digital advertising, including social media, YouTube, CTV, and pre-roll advertising and serves as the foundation for a new landing page on WatchUsGrow.org that lets viewers dive deeper into the many aspects of responsibly raised beef. Shorter videos and photo assets created for social media share messages about family legacy and on-farm sustainability practices.

Results

The Illinois Beef Association’s farmer trust-building campaign connects consumers with today’s cattle farmers, reaching 2.9 million Chicagoland parents.

Digital campaign results: 738,000 video views are generated across social media, YouTube, CTV and pre-roll advertising to Chicagoland parents. Digital campaign results: 63,000 engagements are captured, primarily driven through Facebook, which accounted for 57K engagements and 215K impressions. Digital campaign results: 2,500 website page views are tracked on the Watch Us Grow website, making it the second-most visited web page during the campaign window.