Situation

Research paints a clear picture: Consumers want to know more about how their food is grown. Who do they want to hear it from? The data tells us: Dietitians and health and wellness bloggers are trusted, valued sources.

Objective

Cultivate 50 health, wellness and foodie influencers to share firsthand experiences and facts with Chicago consumers about how food is raised on Illinois farms.

Approach

We do four things:
• Initiate key influencer relationships and sponsorships, including dietitian groups, food industry organizations and foodie influencers.
• Create meaningful in-person experiences, ranging from farm tours to a farm-to-table dinner, that connect influencers with farmers.
• Provide educational information sources about food and farming through emails, fact sheets, social media content and blogs.
• Encourage amplification to additional audiences using social media takeovers, guest bloggers and Twitter chats.

Results

We use pre- and post-event surveys with health, wellness and foodie influencers to measure awareness and perceptions among our target audience, while social media analysis reveals audience amplification.

72 influencers (144% of goal) cultivated in the health, wellness and food space An additional 1.6 million consumers are reached through influencer communications 30% Facebook, 60% Instagram follower increase from August 2017 to August 2018