Video, Google and Spotify Campaign Generates 2.8 Million Engagements with Arizona Consumers
Lauren Maehling, Executive Director | October 1, 2020
PHOENIX, October 1, 2020 - A seven-month advertising campaign promoting beef’s great taste and thoughtful animal care generated 2,859,864 video views, website clicks and audio listens among Arizona consumers this spring and summer. Via YouTube video, Google search and Spotify music streaming, beef messages reached Arizonans 3,987,659* times as they searched for information about beef and how cattle are raised.
The checkoff-funded campaign was conducted by the Arizona Beef Council (ABC) through a grant provided by the Iowa Beef Industry Council. ABC worked with the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) team to help plan, execute and monitor the digital campaign, allowing it to utilize the full amount of the grant, $35,000, to reach target consumers, rather than paying advertising agency fees. NCBA, a Beef Checkoff contractor, provides this service free-of-charge to state beef councils.
The YouTube campaign included a mix of nationally-developed Beef Checkoff videos from the United We Steak campaign, Nicely Done, Rethink the Ranch and BQA video series (see below for links to videos), combined for a total of 2,374,432 video views and reached people 3,246,765 times. Video views are defined as the number of consumers who viewed the entire video or at least watched :30 seconds. That means consumers liked the videos so much that they did not click out early.
Not only did the video campaign successfully reach Arizona consumers in the targeted 18-44 age range, but it did so at an exceptionally low cost. The YouTube cost per video view (CPV) was $.02, significantly below the industry average of $.05 per view. The video view rate was 53.1 percent, meaning over five in ten viewers chose to watch and complete the entire video that they were served, which is higher than the industry average of 30-35 percent.
The Google Search campaign, which provided users beef content when they searched for beef recipes and for information about how ranchers care for cattle, generated total of 15,596 clicks to ArizonaBeef.org and BeefItsWhatsForDinner.com. Popular recipes were promoted including beef-stuffed bell peppers, Ground Beef recipes, beef stir-fry and steak salads. These Arizona ads appeared in 233,734 searches, with the average cost per click (CPC) of $0.39, beating the goal of $0.45 cost per click ($0.99 is the industry average), allowing the Checkoff investment to reach more consumers via search.
As Arizonans in listened to their online music streaming via Spotify, they heard a beef audio ads 469,836 times at the cost of about a penny ($0.014) per listen.
“We are very proud of both the reach and the cost effectiveness of this campaign,” said Clint Gladden, ABC chair, “and are grateful to the Iowa Beef Industry Council for seeing the importance of reaching Arizona’s growing population. This campaign ensured beef messages were regularly touching Arizona consumers during this seven-month effort, especially at a time when families have spent more time cooking at home, searching for recipe inspirations, and learning more about the food supply.”
“This campaign demonstrates that using YouTube, Google and music streaming to reach today’s millennial consumer makes sense,” shared Janine Moore, Iowa Beef Industry Council Chairwoman. “We appreciate the chance to work with the Arizona Beef Council to deliver beef messages to a large number of consumers in a high population area.”
While the primary objective for this campaign was video views, click-throughs in search, and audio listens, an added bonus was an additional 3,402 click-throughs to visit to ArizonaBeef.org, BeefItsWhatsForDinner.com, and UnitedWeSteak.com as viewers were inspired to learn more about the content they were served.
*The difference between engagements and impressions is that engagements are full video views to completion or at least 30 seconds of longer videos on YouTube, click-throughs to website content on Google, and full audio listens on Spotify. Impressions include those who saw the content and clicked out of a video before completion or saw the Google suggested content but did not click to learn more.
Examples of some of the highest performing beef content shared through this digital advertising campaign include:
Video
United We Steak
Nicely Done, Beef
Beef Quality Assurance
Rethink the Ranch
Google Search Popular Content
Audio Ads
To see more content from these Beef. It’s What’s For Dinner. campaigns, visit BeefItsWhatsForDinner.com or the Beef. It’s What’s For Dinner. YouTube channel.
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About the Beef Checkoff Program
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 may 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.
About the Arizona Beef Council
The Arizona Beef Council is a non-profit organization served by a nine-member board of directors representing cattle growers, cattle feeders, and dairy farmers, and are appointed by the Governor of Arizona. These volunteers oversee Arizona’s beef checkoff and checkoff-funded programs.