“Bean Team” The Consumer Linkage Progam
The Nebraska Soybean Board’s Consumer Linkage Program enjoyed its 18th year in 2015. The program officially launched in January with demos in Lincoln, Omaha and Grand Island. The demos continued through May with Bean Team School demonstrations taking place during live radio remotes. The program was designed to reach Lincoln, Omaha and Grand Island through in-store demos. We participated in community events in our key communities of Lincoln and Omaha, as well as in Hastings. The 2015 program included a wide variety of returning sponsors, including Eden® Soymilk and canned black soybeans, Bob’s Red Mill® soy flour, SoyJoy®, and Amy’s Kitchen. The Bean Team conducted 50 in-store demos and participated in 14 community events, two of which were two-day events. Three of the Omaha demos were held during store Health Fair events. We focused on increasing our participation in events in 2015. Participating in events provided the Bean Team the opportunity to reach large groups of interested consumers at one time. Based on estimates from Bean Team summaries, the 2015 Consumer Linkage Program reached approximately 20,500 consumers in Nebraska communities over the three-and-one-half month program.
The 2015 advertising campaign used radio as the primary medium. Radio is a cost-effective tool and allows us to accurately measure how much of our target audience we are reaching. In 2015, we achieved our goal of reaching approximately 70% of women aged 35-64 in the Omaha market and 70% in the Lincoln market. Grand Island is not a measured market; however, we are confident that we are reaching Grand Island with a similar level of reach and frequency. The radio remotes in Omaha, Lincoln, and Grand Island created extra attention for the campaign and rewarded grocery stores that carry soyfood products with increased traffic. Both grocer and Bean Team evaluations have always cited radio advertising and particularly radio remotes as beneficial for raising awareness and increasing traffic to Bean Team booths.
Our public relations efforts were successful this year. The Bean Team was interviewed by both KOLN and KLKN television stations, as well as appearing in the Lincoln Journal Star twice and the Omaha World-Herald once.
The Bean Team increased its activity on its Facebook page by promoting posts and a Facebook “Likes” campaign. This increased the number of likes, but more importantly, increased the reach and the interaction on the page. The Bean Team Facebook page was promoted with magnets that were handed out at demos and events, within the :10 radio copy, during remotes. Recipes are posted under the Notes tab. We rewarded Facebook Friends for commenting on the page with T-shirts.