2024 - Your Commission at Work

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National Recipe Sweepstakes Contest The SWEET North Carolina Sweetpotato Sweepstakes asked entrants to choose their favorite recipe from the North Carolina Sweetpotato recipe arsenal on our website. Once they selected their favorite, this counted as an entry. The winner received a free trip to Charlotte, two-night hotel stay, transportation, meals, and an in-person photo shoot experience where they will get to witness firsthand what goes into a sweetpotato recipe photo shoot. To increase reach, we selected five influencers who helped us drive consumers/fans to our landing page on our website where they would enter the sweepstakes. The contest was

promoted through targeted digital ads that were geofenced in our target markets and demographics. The campaign was a success and yielded excellent results. We now have 5 new recipes with accompanying photos and videos for the North Carolina Sweetpotato Commission’s long-term use; increased our social media reach (influencer collaboration posts reached 30,071 users , total Instagram reach during the sweepstakes period hit 4,924 accounts , received 1,752 total engagements, 425 story engagements, 104 additional engagements from Instagram posts during the campaign and gained 41 new followers . Facebook reached 2,266 people and had 1,052 engagements . Our website visits increased by 149% in July and 98% in August , our total page views during the campaign were 48,771 , with 10,812 views on the sweepstakes page alone. We received 2,934 entries into the sweepstakes, which far surpassed our expectations. We added 416 new contacts to the Commission’s email list.

Mat Release Attracting new shoppers in key markets is key to growing the sweetpotato category. On average 51% of people are inclined to read an article and share it with friends. Through our strategy, we created a combination of several recipe videos with detailed articles providing readers insight on the commission and steps to make the dish. Popular dishes including Sweet and Simple Salsa, Tex-Mex Skillet, Salads Al Fresco and more were highlighted driving fresh ingredients and healthy eating. Overall, the content received 525,726,913 impressions and 4,431 placements.

NYC Pitching Event In February, we attended a pitching event by way of FullTilt Marketing, our marketing agency of record. This was a full-day, intimate workshop where we met and mingled with some of the TOP editors and producers in the media – right in the hub of where all the media happens – New York City. Our team met with editors from podcasts, magazines, and websites to build connections for future opportunities. Editors ranged from business to lifestyle to women’s interests. FullTilt pitched and continued pitching them ideas from time to time to garner future coverage.

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