CONTEXT
Seaboard Foods raises pigs and produces pork to feed people all over the world. It aims to produce the most wholesome, delicious pork for customers and consumers by purposefully connecting every step between its farms and families’ tables. Since the early 1990s, Seaboard Foods has been building this uniquely connected food system. Its focus now is to break into the top three pork processors by edging out one of the big names.
THE CHALLENGE
Seaboard Foods needed a way to connect with retail meat buyers who are not currently selling its Prairie Fresh® brand pork. The audience was small — only about 50 people. The goal was to get their attention, build awareness of the Prairie Fresh brand, and showcase why the Prairie Fresh team, brand and products are superior — by introducing the Prairie Fresh Way. In today’s digitally driven jobs, a mailer stands out — especially when it’s shaped like a pig.
THE IDEA
Once opened, the pig box mailer defined the pillars of the Prairie Fresh Way, introduced the brand and products, and provided branded merchandise to invite retail meat buyers to join the Prairie Fresh Way. A card in the box drove recipients to a landing page to order an additional item, a branded vest. This element created a trackable response mechanism and allowed Seaboard Foods to measure the 40% response rate. The sales team reports that this mailer has helped open conversations with these key targets, allowing team members to secure meetings during annual product offering reviews and create trials of Prairie Fresh products.
The mailer was part of a larger national campaign targeting retail meat buyers and their influencers. It included print inserts; spread and full-page print ads; digital banner ads and takeovers on key industry sites; rich media ads with video; e-blasts; sponsored content both on publications sites and through e-newsletters; and public relations.
Additionally, geographically focused campaigns targeting consumers were offered to customers who purchased and sold Prairie Fresh in their stores to create pull-through demand.
THE RESULTS
Seaboard Foods distributed this mailer in June 2023, ahead of the key annual meetings and product performance reviews conducted by retailers. The mailer was part of the “Imagine the Porkabilities” campaign which ran for the full calendar year. Total cost of the mailer was approximately $50,000, with about half of that being hard costs.
