Video remains one of the most powerful ways to capture attention and inspire action, particularly among Gen Z—one of today’s most influential consumer groups (born mid-1990s to early 2010s). In 2024, Dairy MAX continued its campaign, using short videos on Gen Z’s favorite social platforms and achieving even better engagement than last year.
Dairy MAX promoted five videos in a new YouTube campaign, tailoring content to align with Gen Z's passion for sustainability and values-driven choices. Knowing that Gen Z is skeptical about traditional farming practices, particularly regarding animal welfare, made it crucial to highlight the exceptional care dairy farmers provide for their cows. By featuring real, relatable dairy farmers, we build connections with Gen Z audiences who value transparency and responsibility in their food choices.
While we promoted videos on both TikTok and YouTube in 2023, YouTube outperformed TikTok, so our 2024 strategy prioritized YouTube to gather more information on how the campaign affected our audience.
How many people did we reach?
- Our videos were seen nearly 9 million times. While this is fewer overall impressions than last year, the higher engagement shows that we were able to be more targeted (and more budget-efficient) this year.
- Over 70% of people watched the videos all the way through. People watched our skippable videos at about a normal rate for food-related content, while our skippable videos performed far above average: overall, our content performed a significant 25% better than last year.
- 2,500+ people clicked through to learn more. While we focused the campaign on earning views and educating our consumers, rather than click-throughs, we still saw thousands of people who were intrigued enough to dig deeper into what dairy offers.
What did we learn about dairy perceptions?
This year, we added a perception survey feature that allowed us to measure how our audience feels about dairy pre-campaign and post-campaign.
- We learned that male audiences already had more positive thoughts about dairy (~68%) than female audiences did (~56%).
- Some results indicated that female audiences offered the best potential for changing minds; after watching our videos, ladies were over 5% more likely to have positive opinions of dairy than those who had never seen our videos.
By continuing to share authentic, relatable videos about the care and responsibility that dairy farmers bring to their work, we can strengthen the trust and connection with Gen Z.
We’re proud to see these efforts making a lasting impact. Together, we’re fostering a greater appreciation for dairy, ensuring its relevance and appeal to future generations.
