While all fresh produce is healthy and can boost the immune system to some extent, mushrooms have some unique qualities that can still be promoted during what is hopefully the tail end of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Launching the Feed Your Immune System campaign was our primary focus in the first quarter, and we will continue to touch on the issue of immunity indefinitely,” Mushroom Council spokesman Eric Davis said. “That’s because no matter the course the pandemic takes, consumers will continue to be concerned about and prioritize immune health.”
For one, mushrooms are the only fruit or vegetable that naturally contains vitamin D, which normally the human body absorbs from the sun.
“The amount of research on mushrooms and their nutritional benefits is outstanding, and it’s going to be an exciting decade ahead of us, how mushrooms benefit the body,” said Bruce Knobeloch, vice president of marketing and product development at Monterey Mushrooms, Watsonville, Calif.
The company has a proprietary ultraviolet system that adds more vitamin D to its brown mushrooms.
The Mushroom Council launched a multimedia initiative called Feed Your Immune System on behalf of growers in January, Davis said.
Being careful to not promise that mushrooms will heal diseases, the campaign informed consumers about mushrooms’ nutrition, which plays a role in supporting the immune system. And, through recipes, videos and more, it shared how mushrooms and other healthy foods, like spinach, asparagus, citrus and proteins, play a role in feeding the immune system.
The program drove significant interest in mushrooms in the first quarter of 2021.
A few specific results the council has tracked include:
- 23,000 unique visitors to FeedYourImmuneSystem.com with an average visit time of nearly 8 minutes on the site, far exceeding the two-minute benchmark;
- 1.97 million social media impressions across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram;
- 391.1 million impressions from paid media such as syndicated articles and recipe videos; and
- 33 influencers generated 19.3 million impressions with 72,100 engagements.
Across social media, the council featured “Immunity 101” information, which included strategies for incorporating mushrooms and other foods in your diet, shopping tips and more.
Influential dietitians Emily Weeks and Chelsey Amer, along with other wellness influencers, were tapped to put their own spin on mushroom recipes.
Each of these dietitians also conducted a social media takeover and posted their recipes and tips directly to the Mushroom Council’s social media channels as special guests.
“The goal of the takeovers was to engage and educate existing followers while also drawing new ones,” Davis said.
All content was hosted on the central hub of FeedYourImmuneSystem.com and was complemented with:
- Search engine advertising, considering online searches for immune supporting foods were high;
- Earned media outreach;
- Digital ads and YouTube pre-roll ads; and
- In-store point-of-sale materials and supermarket dietitian programs conducted in partnership with the Produce for Better Health Foundation.
