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(Las Vegas — March 15, 2007) The International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA) announced the winners of the 2007 Achieving Excellence Awards at its SmartMarketing Conference today in Las Vegas. The awards honor the dairy industry's top marketing, public relations and advertising efforts. This year's competition, co-sponsored by Dairy Field magazine, featured a record-breaking 238 entries ranging from best new product to best school marketing campaign. "This year's marketing efforts have truly demonstrated that the dairy industry is growing and acquiring a significant competitive position in the food and beverage category," says IDFA Vice President of Marketing Tom Nagle. The "Best of the Best" — the Best Overall Award for Marketing Excellence — went to Mayfield Dairy Farms for its "Flavor Decision '06" campaign. The campaign invited consumers to vote for the promotional ice cream flavor that would secure a permanent space in retail freezers. Each of the candidates — Triple Brownie, Peanut Butter Cookie Dough, Blueberry Cream Pie and Extreme Moose Tracks — had its own billboard, TV news story, TV campaign spot and radio campaign spot. The company picked up four other awards for the campaign including Best Website, Best Overall Promotion, Best Overall Mixed Media Campaign and Best Overall Public Relations Campaign. Mayfield also took the prize for Best Billboard/Transit Ad in the fluid milk category. LALA Foods generated a lot of buzz in 2006 when it jumped at the opportunity to use the National Soccer League sponsorship rights as its main platform for a promotional campaign. The campaign captured the interest of U.S. Mexican families; and the new Prune and Pecan Yogurt Smoothie captured taste buds. A first-time competitor in the Achieving Excellence Awards, LALA Foods won six silver awards: Best Billboard/Transit Ad in the combination category, Best New Product in the cultured category, Best Package Design in the cultured category, Best Promotion in the combination category, Best Mixed Media Campaign in the combination category and Best Ethnic Marketing Campaign in the combination category. In 2006, Blue Bunny became the fastest growing packaged ice cream brand in the country thanks to the humorous "Ice Cream So Good It Speaks For Itself" integrated campaign. Wells' Dairy took the award for the Best Overall TV Ad along with the award for Best Overall Mixed Media Campaign for multiple products/product lines. Messages about the Food Guide Pyramid, the high calcium content of cheese, 3-A-Day and others were incorporated into the packaging of Saputo Cheese during the back-to-school time frame. Saputo used colorful graphics and kid-friendly designs to maximize its Frigo Cheese Heads Crayola promotion at retail and to generate repeat and multiple purchases. Saputo won for Best Overall Package Design promotional packaging. After one of New England's most recognizable advertising icons, the Hood blimp, crashed in the woods on the North Shore of Massachusetts last fall, Hood felt compelled to reach out to the local communities to thank them for their understanding and patience during the unexpected visit. The award for Best Overall Print Ad went to HP Hood for its ad featuring a photo of a dropped ice cream cone and the headline "Life's Full of Little Crash Landings". This year's Best New Product responds to consumers' growing interest in the nutritional value of omega-3 fatty acids. Omega Farms positioned its cheddar and monterey jack cheeses as a convenient source of omega-3 from fish oil. Dairy Field magazine also named Omega Farms as an Editor's Choice pick for 2006. Shamrock Farms took home the award for Best Overall Ethnic Marketing Piece for a radio spot featuring "Roxie" the 12-year-old "spokescow". The ad features Roxie singing in Spanish, touting the freshness of the company's products. Tetra Pak developed a school marketing piece that raises the awareness of growth opportunities in school milk and gives dairy processors useful tools they can use to persuade their school foodservice customers to buy into enhanced milk programs. The Best Overall School Marketing Piece was awarded to Tetra Pak for the "Lunchbox School Kit". Click here for a complete list of all award winners. Electronic images of all "Awards of Excellence" award winners and the "Best of Show" winner are available by contacting Miranda Abney at (202) 737-4332 or mabney@idfa.org.
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The International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA), Washington, DC, represents the nation's dairy manufacturing and marketing industries and their suppliers, with a membership of 530 companies representing a $90-billion a year industry. IDFA is composed of three constituent organizations: the Milk Industry Foundation (MIF), the National Cheese Institute (NCI) and the International Ice Cream Association (IICA). IDFA's 220 dairy processing members run more than 600 plant operations, and range from large multi-national organizations to single-plant companies. Together they represent more than 85% of the milk, cultured products, cheese and frozen desserts produced and marketed in the United States. IDFA can be found online at www.idfa.org
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