Veal industry leaders met in San Antonio today as part of the annual 2010 Cattle
Industry Annual
Convention. Ray Krones, chairman of the Joint Veal Committee, updated the group
about an exciting
new checkoff-funded promotion to leverage the healthy eating mindset of
consumers.
The veal industry leaders completely endorsed the new retail initiative, says
Krones. They are
excited by the potential sales increases that will result from the promotion.
The program features a signature recipe, Fast Veal Parmigiana, which has just
268 calories and can
be prepared in less than 15 minutes. A recipe contest, with a $500 grocery gift
card prize, will
encourage home cooks to create new veal dishes. A new television commercial also
was developed
for this promotion. The TV spot followed a home cook as she shops for veal at
her local market and
then prepares the Fast Veal Parmigiana recipe found on VealMadeEasy.com for
dinner in her
kitchen. This ad aired on the Rachael Ray Show during the week of Jan. 18 in six
major markets:
New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Washington, D.C., Miami and Orlando. Online ads
ran on
rachaelray.com, and Web buttons plus banner ads were featured on local TV
station Web sites,
which linked to VealMadeEasy.com.
Retailers jumped on board to support the promotion. Fourteen retailers, with
1,600 stores, received
on-pack recipe labels that featured the signature recipe and included details
about the consumer
recipe contest. Artwork with high-impact visuals were also being created for ad
slicks and other in-
store advertising. Retailers’ Web sites linked to VealMadeEasy.com to continue
to drive traffic to the
site.
For more information about beef checkoff-funded veal initiatives, visit
MyBeefCheckoff.com.
The Beef Checkoff Program was established as part of the 1985 Farm Bill. The
checkoff assesses $1
per head on the sale of live domestic and imported cattle, in addition to a
comparable assessment on
imported beef and beef products. States retain up to 50 cents on the dollar and
forward the other 50
cents per head to the Cattlemen’s Beef Promotion and Research Board, which
administers the
national checkoff program, subject to USDA approval.