Around 10,000 years ago, humanity began to think that maybe hunting woolly mammoths and other aggressive fauna wasn't the best way to put food on the proverbial table. There was just too much famine between the feasts of mammoth short ribs and rump roasts. But leaving hunting behind for agriculture and farming, according to the World Bank, created the man-made miracle of a consistent food chain that helped reduce poverty, raise incomes, and improve food security for 80 percent of the world's poor. Yet for all their runaway success, farms are now shrinking like tomatoes left on the vine too long in the sun. Since 2017, the U.S. Department of Agriculture pegs the loss at more than 100,000 farms and in excess of 20 million acres of farmland. Worse, it's those very disappearing farms that are a crucial weapon in the fight to reverse the effects of climate change.

Organic Valley wanted to show the world that choosing products from the independent cooperative of organic farmers helps reverse the effects of climate change and protect where their food comes from. Indeed, they're supporting a vibrant and diverse ecosystem of agriculturalists that produces food through methods that are as kind to your taste buds as they are good to the Earth. The question, then, became how, when, and where to accomplish this. The “when” and “where” part of the equation bordered on being a no-brainer: the 2024 Natural Products Expo West show last March. The expo, located in the Anaheim Convention Center, would bring together 3,300 exhibitors from around the planet, all showcasing their organic and eco-conscious products to a receptive audience of more than 63,000 attendees who see — and likely judge — things through a decidedly green lens. But that Goldilocks-like just-right time and place came with its own challenges that were as tough to weather as a Dust Bowl storm or a swarm of locusts. “We have an emotional, differentiating brand story that resonates with consumers and customers,” says Samantha Sackin, vice president of marketing, integrated communications for Organic Valley. “In a trade show environment, our challenge is to bring that story to life in the most compelling way possible.”


Green Acres
Working with Astound Group Inc. and Creature Creations Studio, the Organic Valley team then set out to educate attendees at the Natural Products Expo West about its mission to safeguard the organic family farm. Now, from Ben Franklin “Farmer's Almanac” and Grant Woods' “American Gothic” to Clark Kent's parents and the Joads in “The Grapes of Wrath,” these sons and daughters of the soil soar as high over our collective history as a grain elevator. Even the dog “Bingo” of folk-song fame belonged to a farmer. As conversant with these legends of farming as you'd expect, the company wisely didn't put all its eggs in one basket. Instead, it sowed the seeds of its strategy with three essential tactics: a booth with design elements that would convey the company's eco-minded approach, farm-related activities that would deepen the link in attendees' minds between the company and its commitment to farms, and thought leadership that would communicate how Organic Valley is respecting the past and preserving the present while working to build a better future for farms.

For any of the show's 63,000-plus attendees who walked into the Anaheim Convention Center, the branded 30-by-40-foot booth was as hard to miss as a red barn on a wide-open prairie. Merging the themes of eco-friendliness with farming was the stand's living wall, a traffic builder guests might talk about until the proverbial cows wander home. Measuring 9-by-10-feet and covered with 300 live plants, the vertical garden comprised more than just any plants you'd pick up at Lowes or Home Depot: There were eight different varieties of plants, representing those that attract pollinators and may typically be found growing on Organic Valley farms, including Gaura “Belleza Dark Pink“ Wandflower, Ornamental Cabbage, Tricolor Sage, and lush Purple African Daisy.

Colorful as an ear of calico corn, the flora formed a photosynthesizing picture frame around a 75-inch monitor. Playing on the screen was the video for the company's campaign: “Protecting Where Your Food Comes From.” An irreverent riff on nature documentaries where a David Attenborough-like narrator is astonished to discover the landscape he has been gushing over — teeming with earthworms enriching the soil, songbirds welcoming the sun — is not in fact a nature preserve or a national park but an Organic Valley farmstead, one of 1,600 in the company's network where toxic chemicals are shunned and “nature gets to do its crazy thing,” as the video put it. Running slightly more than two minutes, the video also included short promotional blurbs for the company's new products, including Family First DHA Omega 3 milk and Flavor Favorite cheese lines.

A bumper crop of other elements cleverly furthered the look of a common farmstead and underscored the connection between Organic Valley and farming. Barn doors weathered to a russet-potato brown led into a trio of meeting rooms. Next to it, a silver/gray section of corrugated steel the same dimensions as the living wall stood near a quartet of faux straw bales. The imitation bundles performed multiple duties — first as storage units where the company stowed extra items needed for the booth, and second as theme-appropriate seating where attendees could take a load off. Crowning the booth were two replicas of solar panels, representing Organic Valley's pledge to renewable energy — a principle practiced on many of its members' farms and within its own facilities as well. Other components included a freestanding segment of wooden fence, and carpeting whose two tones of green gave depth to the floor and suggested the verdant shades you might see in the country.

As down home as a pair of overalls and ball cap with a seed company's name stitched on it, the Organic Valley booth had its moments of unexpected levity. Several sculptures of barnyard animals populated the 1,200-square-foot expanse, including two chickens named Marigold and Petunia. The stylized fowl — and conversation starters — were made of (appropriately enough) chicken wire first molded into the individual parts of the bird, then attached together with more wire and covered with green moss to complete the look.


The Land of Milk and Funny
While Marigold and Petunia drew attendees' attention to the stand, they served more as the wingmen to another sculpture that became a crowd gatherer intensifying the company's message. A life-size cow was, like the chickens, made of a skeleton of wire and a flesh of pasture-green moss. After shaping the ungulate to give it the correct form and dimension, Organic Valley used masking tape to cover the wire, then sheet moss was glued to the mesh surface shell to finish the bovine look.

The counterfeit cow was more than just an icebreaker for guests and staff, though. Officially christened “Bessie“ by the company, she supplied a hands-on experience that brought the farm right to the event in Anaheim. Staffers and actual Organic Valley farmers greeted the attendees, then guided them through the timeless art of milking a cow by hand. The cow, complete with a fillable udder that guests could empty, offered a dash of rural charm amid the expo's buzz. (And without the stress of bringing in a real flesh-and-blood dairy cow to the show.) It was an educational moment for visitors — a chance to connect with the source of their food in an entertaining and interactive way. It became a way to extend the booth well past the back 40 of the convention center, as the milking station became a stage for countless pictures that spread the booth over social media. Beyond appearing on Instagram, the milking activity conveyed a true sense of the brand's commitment to traditional farming practices.

Knowing that the only thing better than talking about food is eating it, the company served a farm-to-trade-show banquet. Guests could sample Organic Valley's new Spicy Cheddar and Italian Herb Mozzarella cheese shreds and munch on grilled cheese wedges made with its just-debuted Smoky Cheddar and wash the savory treats down with New Family First DHA Omega 3 Whole Milk. Making sure Organic Valley didn't abandon its commitment to sustainable practices just because it was at a trade show, staff served the ice-cold milk in a reusable glass milk bottle with a paper straw and an organic chocolate chip cookie. “What a fun, lively, and tasty way to integrate Organic Valley's brand messaging and objectives throughout all touchpoints of the booth experience,” said judges.

Food for Thought
One of the cardinal rules behind successful farming is the principle of rotating crops, where you move crops from one location to another each season. Instead of relying solely on two “crops,” one of clever design and the other of whimsical activities, Organic Valley added acreage elsewhere to spotlight its “Protect” campaign to preserve the environment through its stewardship of more than 400,000 acres of organic pastureland and diverse ecosystems. Starting fittingly enough on Climate Day, it participated in a forum off the show floor at the nearby Marriott. Dubbed “Working at the Intersection of Climate & Nature: The Opportunities & Challenges Companies are Facing Accounting for Their Efforts,” the panel of high-profile experts — including Caitlin Leibert from Whole Foods Market, Jessica Rosen of Guayaki Yerba Mate, and Nicole Rakobitsch, Organic Valley's director of sustainability — explored contemporary practices like carbon insetting, renewable-energy adoption, and sustainable land management. More than just the usual patting each other on the back common to such panels, the group pointedly illustrated how these processes not only boost the ecosystem's health, but enhance farms' bottom line.

Two days later, Organic Valley sponsored the panel “Farm to Brand: Protecting the Future of Food,” again held off the show floor at the Marriott, featuring four pioneering women leading the organic industry. The foursome included Organic Valley's chief brand officer Jaclyn Cardin and chief commercial officer Bobbie-Sara Holman as well as two members of the co-op, Hayley Painter, co-owner of Painterland Sisters LLC, which makes organic yogurt, and Lauren Perkins, a fourth-generation farmer and Organic Valley member-owner from West Virginia. It could have been a corporate group hug supplying more advertisements than insights, but the panel baled stacks of insights connecting consumers with the healthy processes behind organic products and introduced them to innovative items transforming traditional food categories.


Making Hay
Though the company decided to forego specific numerical goals and instead focused broadly on reinforcing relationships and sparking awareness and buzz around new products, Organic Valley ended with a bumper crop of results. It harvested a 132 percent increase of in-booth meetings, a metric that connected to a 38 percent increase in leads generated, compared, respectively, to its results for both at the 2023 Natural Products Expo West show.

The company also racked up an estimated 207,732 impressions on the company's Instagram and 28,279 impressions on its LinkedIn account. The last also saw a 15-percent engagement rate, which was a stunning 287 percent better than many of its competitors at the show fared with their impressions. Last of all, attendees tried 25 percent more of the Organic Valley's new foods than anticipated. “The corn is as high as an elephant's eye” goes a lyric in the musical “Oklahoma,” and so too were the results of Organic Valley's marketing strategy that reaped everything it sowed.E