Checkoff-Funded Veal Programs Surpass 2004 Publicity Goals

DENVER (Oct. 22, 2004) – A veal publicity goal set for last year by the checkoff-funded Joint Veal Committee was exceeded by more than 10 percent, recent analysis shows.  The Committee had a $2 million goal for veal publicity value, as measured in estimated advertising equivalency.  Results show that more than $2.24 million in value was generated for veal. 

The Joint Veal Committee’s efforts are funded by America’s beef and veal producers through the national Beef Checkoff Program. The programs are coordinated on behalf of the Cattlemen’s Beef Board and state beef councils by the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA).  The NCBA serves as one of the Beef Board’s contractors for checkoff-funded programs.

Other priorities that were successfully addressed were advertising for restaurant and other foodservice operators, retail marketing and chef education.

“We were pleased with the progress we made in 2004,” says Mike Mosner, a veal packer from the Bronx, N.Y., and vice chair of the Joint Veal Committee.  “The visibility we were able to generate with consumers, restaurant operators, chefs and retailers will help veal become more common on American dinner tables.”

Among the successes in the consumer publicity strategy were four appearances on two national morning television shows, Fox & Friends and the Today Show.  The Today Show alone has 6.6 million viewers.

Information for articles about veal was also placed in major consumer and chef publications such as Chef, Bon Appetit, Gourmet, Restaurants & Institutions, Restaurant Hospitality and National Culinary Review.  Cover stories and major photo features were included in the publicity.

A veal media event June 10 helped create additional publicity, as 75 media and food industry thought leaders attended a tableside kitchen presentation and competition at the home of Stanley Lobel, a contributing editor to food publications, cookbook author and president of Lobel and Sons in New York.  Celebrity chefs who helped promote veal at the event, as well as throughout the year on behalf of the checkoff, were David Burke, Waldy Malouf, David Rosengarten and Lobel.

Editors and foodservice operators also received veal story ideas and information from the Veal Dish newsletter, which is published semi-annually.

Other Strategies Successful

A retail marketing program that included partnerships with packers and a Web site presence was equally successful.  For instance, a partnership with Polly’s Country Market produced a 45 percent increase in veal sales during the course of the promotion and the addition of two veal cuts to Polly’s permanent meat case.  A partner on this promotion was the Michigan Veal Committee.

Results from a 4-week promotion with Food Emporium were also promising.  The promotion included radio, print and point-of-sale advertising.

Efforts were also made to arrange for visibility of veal on the Epicurious.com Web site.  Epicurious.com guaranteed more than 1 million hits on the site for the year; when the results were tabulated nearly 3 million hits had been achieved.  An e-mail newsletter from the site added another 2.12 million hits to the total.

Roundtable Educates Chefs

Five roundtable events for chefs were held during the year in Phoenix, New Orleans, Madison, Wis., and two in Chicago.  In partnership with the American Veal Association, the roundtables provided the opportunity to eliminate some of the barriers to menuing veal in restaurants.  Materials provided to this audience will be updated as a result of these events.

“Through education and promotion, we’re having an impact for America’s veal producers,” says Mosner.  “There’s no question that consumers need to be reminded of how valuable our product can be to their diets.  What the checkoff is doing is creating extra positive attention for veal’s attributes and thereby helping increase demand for veal.”

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