The Watsonville-based California Strawberry Commission this year will continue to work to build awareness around the state’s producers, the way they grow strawberries in the state and what makes California strawberry growers and their product unique, said Chris Christian, vice president of marketing.
The theme of this year’s marketing campaign is “California Strawberries — Universally Loved, Locally Farmed,” she said.
“We are focusing a lot of our efforts around California consumers,” she said, adding that California strawberries are “local” strawberries in the U.S. most of the year.
“We produce almost 90% of the strawberries grown in the U.S., and we represent 79% of the supply in the U.S.,” she said, especially from March through September.
The commission will build on its efforts from last year to get out the word about strawberries by engaging with mom and food bloggers, holding blogger events, forming blogger partnerships and hosting a blogger farm tour in the spring, Christian said.
Aside from their friends, many consumers — especially moms — say their No. 1 sources of information are the blogs they follow, she said.
Although the campaign will be highly focused on California, there will be some national components as well.
The commission will use some paid media such as sponsored content and online advertising to support public relations and social media efforts.
“We will build on what was most successful in our campaign this past year to expand in the current year,” Christian said.
The commission also will create a network of dietitians to serve as spokespeople, mostly at national events and conferences, like the Academy of Nutrition Dietetics conference in October in Houston, and on an as-needed basis throughout the year.
A number of public relations efforts will kick off during National Nutrition Month in March and continue into National Strawberry Month in May.
“We’re going to do things like radio news releases and working with members of our registered dietitians network,” she said.
“It will be perfect timing with when our production starts to ramp up in March.”
The commission will continue to promote its scholarship program for children of strawberry farmworkers with a number of activities scheduled for May, when the annual scholarships are presented.
The organization also will continue its engagement with chefs and menu developers.
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