United Dairy Industry of Michigan was looking to increase the amount of video content on their social channels that spoke specifically to their two primary target audiences: Millennial Parents and Gen Z. It wasn’t just higher engagement numbers they were looking for. The concepts had to communicate the most important value props while remaining true to the essence of the brand.
We created three individual video series, one optimized for YouTube, one for Instagram and one for TikTok. All were shot to highlight how milk is part of a healthy lifestyle and benefits both physical and mental health. From self-care to essential ingredients, from teenagers to young moms and dads, each of the videos within the series had a viewpoint that spoke to one, or both of, our key consumer groups.
From Chaos to Calm—By juxtaposing the frenetic pace of everyday life with finding a moment of peace, this series was aimed at inducing an emotional response to a highly relatable scenario. Each spot began with a flurry of noise and movement happening around our hero, an empty glass, with the cacophony then fading into the background as milk is slowly poured, evoking the cool and tranquil associations milk can provide when you enjoy it alongside some time to yourself. It’s an idea appreciated by the young and old, but surely hits home more solidly with parents.
Essential Nutrients—Our educationally focused series sought to explicitly communicate the nutritional benefits that milk brings, and how they can help you take on common challenges throughout your day. Spinning around the table we see every member of a meeting, family or study group, most with a non-milk beverage or snack contributing to their lethargy. Meanwhile, the dynamic head of the table is ready to take on the project at hand, with a trusty glass or carton of milk at the ready, while “CALCIUM” “PROTEIN” “VITAMIN D” and more splash on the screen.
Snacks—Leveraging the popularity of the short-form, fast-paced recipe videos found on TikTok, this series featured a variety of folks representing our target consumers and showcased how they enjoy milk and dairy products as an ingredient in their favorite snacks. Care was taken to capture the authentic, stripped-down look the TikTok audience expects, so it feels less like marketing and more like helpful content (which it is!)
The campaigns performed above their benchmarks, which is largely attributable to each being tailored to the platform on which it ran.
As more and more YouTube videos are being watched on larger screens in the living room, ads that are evocative with sensory appeal and high production values are well received in that larger format, like the Chaos to Calm videos, which were watched to completion approximately 40% of the time.
Alternatively, TikTok users respond well to personable, organic content shot in the style typically posted on the site, like the Snacks series, which increased followership for the client’s account by more than 7x.
The Essential Nutrients videos are yet to go live at the time of this posting, but based on the success of the first two executions, we can’t wait to see how they do.