Bringing consumers closer to the daily lives of dairy farmers and showcasing the important role of dairy in the diet are the aims of two new projects.
Six dairy farmers from the UK, USA, Kenya and Denmark will link up to influential UK bloggers through FaceTime as part of the Global Dairy Platform’s One Billion People project.
The six farmers have been chosen by levy-board AHDB Dairy because of their contribution to the Global Dairy Platform themes of community livelihood, environmentally minded, gender and diversity, and heritage and innovation.
The Global Dairy Platform leads the development of a collaborative, unified approach on common industry issues.
The members work in partnership to align and support the dairy industry in the promotion of sustainable dairy nutrition.
Their One Billion Project highlights the number of people across the world who are in some way connected to the dairy industry, either on farms or through the supply chain.
True picture
The bloggers will speak to the farmers at different times of day over a period of a week, to gain a true picture of the key times in the daily life of a modern day dairy farmer.
This will then be shared across social media to give a picture of the dairy industry globally and how it’s changing, reflecting the global themes.
AHDB has also carried out research which looked at the key barriers preventing parents from consuming dairy.
The research found that while parents understand the benefits of dairy for their children, they no longer prioritise their own nutritional needs and therefore think nutrition is important for their kids, but not for themselves.
To connect with new parents, AHDB Dairy will be working with social media influencers to inform parents about the benefits of dairy and drive desirability for dairy to be included as part of a family’s balanced diet.
'Telling stories'
Rebecca Miah, AHDB Dairy senior consumer manager said farmers will "tell their stories" to help promote dairy.
“The Dairy UK and AHDB campaign is at a really exciting stage, with advertising now live at busy train stations and video on demand playing during catch up TV,” Ms Miah explained.
“These two new AHDB projects will help build the momentum of the long term, clearly focussed initiative, with dairy farmers telling their stories and helping to promote dairy products.
“This is a valuable aspect of the campaign as it brings realism and gives an opportunity to harness our collective voices and positive messages.”
