Conversations at United — Julie DeWolf & Christina Ward with Sunkist

Julie DeWolf, director of marketing operations for Sunkist Growers, and Christina Ward, director of global brand marketing, spoke with The Packer's retail editor Ashley Nickle about what the company did to make the most of the industry's first virtual trade show.

Ward noted that Sunkist always works to incorporate education into its booth, and this year, instead of doing that with physical displays, the company created a virtual tour to give details about its oranges, grapefruit and lemons. It also still supplied recipe cards as a way to inspire displays and cross-merchandising pairings.

DeWolf said Sunkist adapted its materials for the virtual format to be more easily digestible for online passers-by.

"Normally people will walk into our booth and the first thing they'll see is what our operations team works on, which is our display bins and colorful packaging and point-of-sale materials, so without the ability to do that in person, we had to create some online materials that served that purpose, and condensed forms because it's almost like a shopping environment where you're busy visiting a lot of different things and you're making decisions quickly," DeWolf said.

"We created just some very brief, eye-catching (pieces on) here are the basics of what we're doing from a promotional standpoint, with the ability to still have our customization if any retailers are interested," DeWolf said.

Sunkist wants to help retailers keep the citrus momentum going throughout the summer. DeWolf noted that the heightened interest in vitamin C definitely supports higher citrus demand, and she called the California valencia "the official orange of American summers," noting that U.S.-grown is another attribute for which there is growing demand.

For more coverage from United Fresh Live! ...

Check out dozens of articles covering the show here, including reporting on sessions and interviews with suppliers about what they've been featuring in their booths.

For videos with suppliers about their new products and impressions of the industry's first virtual trade show, head over to this page.

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