The National Frozen & Refrigerated Food Association’s (NFRA) consumer PR campaigns in the United States showed significant results in 2016, the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania-based trade association reported on February 27. With the use of storytellers, robust media relations programs, innovative media partnerships and an aggressive digital and social media strategy, NFRA increased the share of voice across traditional, online and social media platforms – increasing the frozen and refrigerated food conversation over 2015.
NFRA’s Real Food. Frozen campaign told the frozen food story of real ingredients and chef-inspired recipes, while The Dairy Aisle…Beyond Cool campaign provided culinary inspiration to expand shoppers’ definition of dairy “staples.” They produced 12% more impressions from 2015. A few notable accomplishments included:
- NFRA launched Easy Home Meals on Instagram and grew social media audiences significantly. The Easy Home Meals blog provides timely content that supports campaign messages and inspires meals, and it serves as a hub for sharing member and partner contributions. The Easy Home Meals Facebook page generated 390,000 likes through optimizing content to coordinate with search trends and using paid advertising to drive more traffic.
- NFRA fueled positive consideration for the frozen category on top-tier food-focused media. An article headlined “The Freezer Aisle Is Beckoning: Head to the Frozen Food Section for Warm Winter Dishes” on Food Republic, a story entitled “4 Quick and Healthy Shortcuts Straight from the Freezer” on Tasting Table served up recipes for common entertaining quandaries. The placements garnered a combined 13.3 million impressions.
- An expanded Cool Food Panel of food bloggers, chefs and cookbook authors shared recipes, content and frozen and refrigerated food messaging to large online communities. The panel created over 50 recipes and blog posts highlighting member brands that were shared with their audiences, achieving over seven million impressions.
- Cookbook author Katie Workman conducted a satellite media tour for NFRA generating 24 broadcast and radio interview segments garnering 19.8 million impressions. She shared campaign messages and timesaving shortcuts to create quality meals with less time spent in the kitchen and more time with family.
These and many other accomplishments successfully reached consumers, effectively increasing awareness of the diverse and innovative products that can be found in the frozen and dairy aisles of supermarkets and retail stores, and helped to change the conversation about frozen and refrigerated foods. NFRA is building on these efforts in 2017 with new storytellers, increased media exposure and an enhanced social media strategy.
