The celebrity influencer, with millions of fans in tow, is dead. Such macro-influencers are costly and their multiple endorsements blur a connection with your brand. If you’re fortunate to have budget in this economy, better to tap local micro-influencers with a few thousand followers. Their fans are more dedicated than the celeb influencer’s millions, right? In truth, the jury remains out on which influencer works best.
What’s not in doubt is that Americans’ mostly-homebound status has increased time online. Social media use is up 61 percent, Kantar data shows.
With that rise, influencers are in vogue. 35 percent of US consumers made an unplanned purchase based on social viewing, a Valassis study says. In addition, 21 percent made an influencer-motivated purchase for the first time since the pandemic began.
And 36 percent who follow influencers said they’re looking to more diverse influencers as a result of protests against racial injustice.
Many of these factors led Tillamook County Creamery Association to tap mega-influencer, actor, producer, director, philanthropist and activist Eva Longoria for its “All for Farmers” campaign, which supports farmers and farmland and raises attention to related issues.
Influencer with a twist
Sure, Longoria has a huge social following (7 million followers on Twitter, 8 million on Instagram, 5.4 million on Facebook), but there’s another significant twist. Longoria’s got farming in her blood.
Senior Manager, Marketing Partnerships
Tillamook
“Eva grew up on a ranch and has long been an advocate for supporting farmers and farm workers,” says Amy Verhey, Tillamook’s senior executive for marketing partnerships.
While many PRNEWS readers might not recognize the Tillamook name, it’s not a small brand. Up until five years ago, the Oregon-based dairy’s cheeses, ice cream and 300+ other products were sold primarily in the Pacific Northwest.
Today, though, the 111-year-old farmer-owned cooperative is distributing nationally. Accordingly, sales are up 56 percent since 2015, approaching $1 billion. In other words, Tillamook had budget to compensate Longoria.
The reach-out consisted of Tillamook and its PR partner, FleishmanHillard, sharing its All for Farmers campaign with Longoria. Knowing Longoria’s passion for farming, the team was not surprised that she was immediately interested in working with Tillamook.
Indeed, when we ask Verhey to address communicators at small brands and one-person communication shops on the topic of working with a mega-influencer, she emphasizes the passion angle.
“Work hard to make sure you find someone who is truly interested in your brand and about your effort. This campaign was so seamless with Eva because of her authentic passion for the farming community and for Tillamook products,” she says.
Clutter Crusher
There’s another reason Longoria’s farming connection was important to Tillamook. With audiences having many other things on their mind–the pandemic, the economy, back-to-school, the election–Tillamook knew it would take a compelling influencer, particularly one “who had shared equity in the farming industry,” to break through the clutter.
Moreover, farming and farmland, though critical, are not innately exciting topics, and Tillamook went wide with this effort. “The audience,” Verhey says, “is anyone and everyone who eats food in our country on a daily basis. We want to bring people and farmers closer together, all over the country. Our food supply simply does not exist without farmers.”
Pandemic and the Farm
Indeed, COVID-19 has heightened the need to raise awareness of the farmer’s plight. US farm debt has grown to more than $425 billion, its highest level since the farm crisis of the 1980s.
“Due to the pandemic, some farmers have been forced to give away or even destroy goods they produced,” she says. Farmers whose product formerly supplied restaurants, hotels and schools, for example, are in this situation.
While Tillamook has made coronavirus-related adjustments, it’s fortunate enough to be able to commit 10 percent of its September grocery product sales to All for Farmers.
The anticipated donation of up to $2 million will fund grants that will save farms and farmland and provide relief directly to farmers.
Longoria participated in a Sept. 8 media day, sharing short videos and her recipes, using Tillamook products, on her social channels.
Consumers were invited to share their thanks for farmers on social media with #AllforFarmers. And Tillamook offered paid social content about farmers and farmland throughout the month.
Results are preliminary, but encouraging. Tillamook’s September sales figures indicate that the company is on track to meet its goal of donating $1.6 million to American Farmland Trust, a spokesperson tells us.
Tillamook will make the final donation amount announcement Monday (October 12), which is National Farmer’s Day.
In addition, positive sentiment is 95.6 percent. Cheese dollar sales are up 10 percent in key frontier markets vs the weeks prior to the All For Farmers campaign. Sales velocity is up 6 percent for the same periods.
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