You know where your Checkoff dollars go, but do you ever wonder what they accomplish? You don’t have to. Just check your mailbox (or that big stack of mail on your desk) for details on how to access the Dairy MAX 2015 Year in Review.
The animated, interactive infographic-style report is housed online at yir.dairymax.org for the third year in a row and summarizes how Dairy MAX, your local dairy checkoff program, is working to spread the word about the natural goodness of dairy. From farm to consumer, experts in education and health and wellness are passionate about the continual improvement of the industry. The Year in Review covers the highlights from efforts in all of its program areas: health and wellness; consumer marketing; Our Land, Our Cows, Our Passion℠; school marketing and sports marketing.
Marty McKinzie, Dairy MAX’s vice president of industry image and relations, says “it’s amazing” to step back and see what all the Checkoff has done in a 12-month period — and compare to years past. “You can go back and reference the historical year in reviews and see where we've been, where we've changed things, where we've grown and improved,” McKinzie says.
He says 2015 was a big year for Dairy MAX, between relaunching the website and a cohesive overall communications strategy. “We really put a lot of effort into broadening, yet focusing at the same time,” McKinzie says. “I know often times, you think of that as being contradictory, but, we really extended the scope of work that we do while looking for the greatest opportunity to change behavior or educate about a variety of different topics.” He says the organization’s consumer platform has really grown in the last three- to five- years, culminating in 2015.
“From our increased presence in social media to the continued development and improvement of the Dairy Discovery Zone — all of those things have really enhanced our reach with the consumer, especially the moms, who are the ones making decisions at the grocery store for their families,” McKinzie says.
But programs aren’t always visible in the rural communities of Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Southwest Kansas. That’s why the Year in Review is so valuable to producers, McKinzie says. “Many of our dairy farmers are located in areas where they don't have the opportunity to actively see all of the work that we do,” he says. “They may see some of the work in schools. They may see, occasionally, a community event, or our work there in the communities through the industry image and relations team. But, for the most part, the work that goes on with the health and wellness and sports marketing — some of our biggest, most impressive success stories — are happening in the metropolitan areas far from the farm,” McKinzie says.
All of these events, large and small, have one thing in common: They’re designed to maximize your checkoff dollar.
“At the end of the day, we really only have two goals,” McKinzie says. “One: to increase sales and consumption of dairy products, and two, to protect producer and product image. Regardless of the area of focus, whether it's schools, or health and wellness, or sports marketing, or industry relations, we leverage our events and activities in all of those different areas for the greatest impact and efficiency.”
