(September 5, 2007) The California Milk Advisory Board (CMAB) announced today that it will introduce a Real California Milk seal to consumers across the country through a $40 million advertising and promotional campaign that begins in early October. The seal, which represents a major new direction for California dairy industry promotion efforts, certifies that dairy products bearing the seal are made exclusively with California milk.
The seal will begin appearing at retail on California dairy products, notably butter, yogurt and ice cream, starting this fall. It also will be used for foodservice promotions. The campaign launches with a full-page ad in USA Today and national television advertising as well as radio and outdoor advertising in select markets.
"The seal represents a major shift in industry thinking," said Stan G. Andre, CMAB Chief Executive Officer. "We are setting out to do something no other dairy group has done before - create a strong affinity among consumers nationally for a full range of dairy products from a specific region."
"While it may seem to be a bold move, we do not believe it is a risky one," Andre said. "Our thinking grew from several years of industry research and extensive discussions with distributors, retailers and consumers across the country. We realized that if anyone could do this, California could, especially given the strong appeal of California food products nationally and the success of our national campaign for Real California Cheese. Our research reported that dairy products like butter and ice cream are more appealing to consumers when made with California milk," Andre noted.
Response to the seal from California dairy processors has been strong, Andre said. He notes that a number of major processors including Dean Foods, Producers Dairy, Foster Farms and California Dairy, Inc., among others, have agreed to use the seal and that more are expected to sign on soon.
While outside the state the seal is being used mostly on dairy products such as butter, ice cream and yogurt, within the state it also appears on fluid milk packaging to certify that the milk was produced entirely in California. Advertisements scheduled to run in California newspapers point out that up to 20 percent of California's fluid milk is trucked in from out-of-state and consumers can rely on the new seal to identify locally-produced milk.
Andre noted that the new seal will allow the CMAB to expand its highly successful coupon promotion programs to support California dairy products nationally. "Some major national retailers have asked us to expand our Real California Cheese coupon promotion programs, and the new seal allows us to promote all California dairy products anywhere in the country," Andre said. He reported that last year the CMAB distributed 45 million coupons nationally, most of them for cheese.
The CMAB's popular Happy Cows advertising campaign is being expanded to support the new milk seal. The television advertising will continue to feature the Happy Cows, but now will close with a scene depicting the broad range of dairy products produced in California and a new tagline: "Great milk comes from Happy Cows. Happy Cows come from California. Make sure it's made with Real California Milk." The CMAB will continue to promote Real California Cheese and the cheese seal will continue to appear in the advertising.
"We know that most consumers across the country really like the Happy Cows campaign and they also like to buy cheese that comes from California," said Michael Freeman, Vice President of Advertising for the CMAB. "The Real California Milk seal is a natural way of leveraging these two positive attributes to support California's other dairy products."
California is the nation's leading milk producer and also produces more butter, ice cream, yogurt and nonfat dry milk. The state is the second-largest producer of cheese, which is available nationally under the Real California Cheese seal.
The California Milk Advisory Board (CMAB) is an instrumentality of the California Department of Food and Agriculture funded by the state's nearly 2,000 dairy families. Established in 1969, the CMAB is headquartered in Modesto, California, and is one of the largest commodity boards in the United States. Under the dairy umbrella, the CMAB executes generic advertising, publicity, retail and foodservice promotions and research programs on behalf of California dairy products, including Real California Cheese.