organic trade association organic myth-busting month social … · 2019-12-19 · to create...

Organic Trade Association

Organic Myth-Busting Month Social Media Festival #OrganicFestival | SEPT. 1 – 30, 2015

Campaign Overview & Results

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/k47vcsvwmrprv67/AAAyPQZ1bejE6DqCyfXWf9w4a?dl=0



OTA.com | @OrganicTrade | #OrganicFestival

Table of Contents

Executive Summary ................................................................................................................................................. 3

A Gallery of Online Buzz .......................................................................................................................................... 6

Pre-Campaign Launch (Aug. 18 – 31) ...................................................................................................................... 8

Week 1: Organic Labeling (Sept. 1 – 5) .................................................................................................................. 8

Week 2: Organic Health (Sept. 6 – 12) .................................................................................................................. 11

Week 3: Organic Value (Sept. 13 – 19) .................................................................................................................. 13

Week 4: Organic Production (Sept. 20 – 26) ......................................................................................................... 15

Week 5: Organic Beyond Food (Sept. 27 – 30) ..................................................................................................... 16

Twitter Parties ....................................................................................................................................................... 18

Organic Labeling ................................................................................................................................................ 19

Organic Health ................................................................................................................................................... 20

Organic Production: Beyond Food ..................................................................................................................... 21

Organic Value ................................................................................................................................................... 22

Organic Production & the Environment ............................................................................................................. 23

Organic Fiber & Textiles ..................................................................................................................................... 24

A Counter-Campaign: #FactsNotFear .................................................................................................................... 25

APPENDIX

[A] Partners and Sponsors ...................................................................................................................... 26

[B] OTA Social Channels Results ............................................................................................................. 26

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Executive Summary Organic is a choice that an increasing number of individuals, farmers and brands make each year, but despite the growing demand for organic, our trade must continue to get the message out about the health, social and economic benefits of organic food and farming.

After a highly success inaugural social media festival in 2014 – “Organic-Palooza,” a 10-day celebration of organic – Organic Trade Association (OTA) sought to transform this year’s campaign beyond a celebration and into a cause: an online gathering of the organic trade, opinion leaders, bloggers and – most essential – everyday consumers to share daily research-backed facts that dispelled commonly shared myths about organic.

Fact: You can eat organic on a budget. Fact: Organic agriculture can help feed the planet. Fact: There are proven health benefits of organic. These were among the truths OTA and our partners digitally disseminated each day in September as part of its highly-successful “Myth-Busting Month” social media festival.

Once again leveraging the #OrganicFestival hashtag, and equipped with fresh science and recent trend data posted as artfully designed daily infographics, OTA, members and influencers reached out in unity throughout the month on multiple social channels, particularly Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and LinkedIn.

Among the Results from the Campaign:

Organic Myth-Busting Month and the #OrganicFestival hashtag reached more than

15 MILLION INDIVIDUAL SOCIAL MEDIA USERS

#OrganicFestival hashtag garnered more than 207.5 MILLION SOCIAL MEDIA IMPRESSIONS1

More than 23,000 INDIVIDUALS SHARED OTA’s CONTENT, sharing content and artwork using the #OrganicFestival hashtags across all channels

Users created nearly 36,500 #ORGANICFESTIVAL POSTS with the vast majority using our Facts content and artwork

More than 150 OTA MEMBERS PARTICIPATED in Organic Myth-Busting Month

1 Estimated number of times social media users had the opportunity to see #OrganicFestival content.

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https://www.facebook.com/OrganicTrade

https://twitter.com/organictrade

https://www.pinterest.com/organictrade/

https://instagram.com/organictrade/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/organic-trade-association


Here’s how OTA and the organic industry garnered its results:

First, OTA Developed 5 Weekly Themes Aimed at Engaging with Various Target Audiences Daily

Weekly themes were:

• Organic Labeling (Sept. 1-5) • Organic Health (Sept. 6-12) • Organic Value (Sept. 13-19) • Organic Production (Sept. 20-26) • Organic Beyond Food (Sept. 27-30)

Next, OTA Created Engaging, Illustrative Daily Graphic Posts Aimed at Educating and Inspiring Sharing Among Audiences

Organic Festival’s creative aimed at telling the event’s stories though highly visual and informative images. More than 75 visual posts were created to support and share OTA's messages.

OTA Then Partnered with 31 OTA Members, Who Generously Agreed to Provide 61 Prizes to Social Media Users Engaging in #OrganicFestival Content

Participating members offering daily prizes valued from $25 - $500 [see Appendix A]

OTA Made the Organic Myth-Busting Month Content – including Daily Posts and Artwork – Available for Others to Share

To foster broad member participation, in the days leading up to Organic Myth-Busting Month launch, OTA shared its entire campaign content calendar – including weekly themes, scheduled daily posts and artwork – via a digital toolkit to its members to either share as is, or customize to their own formats. OTA also offered the content on its website to media, bloggers and others.

• 120 OTA members (brands, certifiers, agencies, non-profits) signed on to participate as strategic partners in delivering the organic message.

• More than 150 members shared the content and/or created their own throughout the campaign

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To Deepen Engagement, Organic Myth-Busting Month Also Featured Multiple Twitter Parties Held Throughout the Campaign Tied to Its Weekly Themes and Featuring Thought Leaders as Co-Hosts

Days featuring the hour-long parties garnered up to 5 times the engagement than days without a Twitter Party. Parties and co-hosts included:

• Organic Labeling, featuring Gwendolyn Wyard, Organic Trade Association

• Organic Health, featuring Ashley Koff, RD Nutrition Expert & Health Advocate

• Organic Production: Beyond Food, featuring

Naturepedic • Organic Production & The Environment,

featuring The Organic Center and Rodale Institute

• Organic Value, featuring Wild Oats • Organic Fiber & Textiles, featuring Marci

Zaroff, ECO- lifestyle pioneer

Consumers Wanted All the Facts

Among the campaign’s daily topics, consumers clearly had an appetite for clarifying the difference between organic and natural. #OrganicFestival facts about the meaning of the USDA Organic Seal received the campaign’s most engagement. Posts busting the myth that there is little difference between organic and natural reached up to an estimated 100,000 people.

The most engaged week was Week 4, focusing on Organic Production. Fueled by multiple Twitter Parties, consumers engaged with the content robustly – sharing and reposting our facts related to organic’s ability to feed the world, its role in mitigating climate change, and how organic certification supports farmers. Total posts and impressions for the entire month increased 20% during select days in this week.

Alternately, there was never a week, series of days or topics that saw a dip in engagement – other than typical lighter days on weekends and the Labor Day holiday. Posts that had the lowest engagement in relation to the value of their content tended to be text-heavy “DYK (Did You Know?)” supplemental graphics posted at the end of select days providing deeper insight into the day’s topics.

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A Gallery of Online Buzz “Myth-Busting Month” truly was a “festival” by its most basic hashtag definition – a celebration featuring multiple individuals and organizations congregating online to participate in two-way conversations, presentations and sharing. The following gallery illustrates a snapshot of the thousands of positive, fact-based engagements that occurred daily throughout its campaign.

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*Hashtag tracking is only available on Twitter and Instagram. Other channel results are OTA specific. Reach: total number of individuals who had the opportunity to see #OrganicFestival content on their social channels. Impressions: total number of times these individuals had the opportunity to see #OrganicFestival content.

Pre-Campaign Launch (Aug. 18 – 31)

To create excitement and interest in “Myth-Bustinng Month” OTA and members began sharing details two weeks in advance, with OTA posting its full Communications Kit for download starting Aug. 18. OTA’s media outreach likewise earned industry and marketing trade coverage. All told, pre-campaign social activities alone reached 2 million consumers.

While this advance promotion and content sharing ensured fast momentum once the campaign launched, it also created the opportunity for a variety of pro-GMO and Monsanto-supporting “social media agvocates” to launch a counter-campaign aimed at creating confusion about the very myths OTA and members attempted to dispel. The counter-campaign – and OTA’s response – is summarized at the conclusion of this report.

OTA FACEBOOK PAGE RESULTS

Reach Likes Comments Shares Clicks 23,687 309 22 112 466

#ORGANICFESTIVAL TWITTER RESULTS*

Impressions Reach Posts 3,176,065 1,294,033 508

#ORGANICFESTIVAL INSTAGRAM RESULTS*

Impressions Reach Posts 6,359 6,205 9

OTA LINKEDIN PAGE RESULTS

Impressions Clicks Interactions 4,382 30 21

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Week 1: Organic Labeling (Sept. 1 – 5)

The campaign’s official launch immediately focused on most commonly misunderstood elements to organic: the meaning of the USDA Organic label. The week addressed the certification process, the integrity of the USDA label and the differences between organic vs. other unregulated claims such as “natural.”

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Reach Likes Comments Shares Clicks 100,246 2,105 226 1,792 4,799


Impressions Reach Posts 29,464,127 6,525,188 4,297





THE WEEK’S MOST ENGAGED FACTS

One of our campaign’s top priorities was sharing the facts about organic vs. natural. Consumers clearly had an appetite for learning the difference between organic and natural, with the following Facebook post serving as the week’s most engaged fact.

Meanwhile, on Twitter, our clarification that “organic is non-GMO and so much more” received the most engagements. Tweets on this topic garnering nearly 500 re-tweets as consumers actively sought to learn and share that organic is—and always has been—non-GMO, but non-GMO is not always organic.

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Week 2: Organic Health (Sept. 6 – 12)

The second week turned heavily to spotlighting recent research proving and underscoring organic’s health benefits, busting the myth that organic isn’t better for you.

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Reach Likes Comments Shares Clicks 87,128 1,630 260 968 2,852








Not all milk is the same. Our Wednesday fact sharing the recent data proving organic milk’s additional health benefits earned the most social sharing throughout all social channels, clearly illustrating consumers have a deep interest in this organic staple’s proven benefits.

On Twitter, a single Tuesday post sharing facts that organic foods have a higher concentration of nutrients, specifically calling out recent data on Vitamin C and fiber in organic strawberries, drew more than 170 retweets from our page. This enthusiasm indicates that consumers appreciate specific data points as opposed to statements about broader trends.

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Week 3: Organic Value (Sept. 13 – 19)

For the campaign’s third week, also the same week as Expo East, OTA and partners addressed the costs behind organic, demonstrating organic is affordable for all – including budget-conscious consumers – and proving organic truly is worth it.

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Organic affordability remains a key area of focus among consumers, who deeply engaged in our content on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram demonstrating that a family of four can eat organic on a budget.

In addition, our Tuesday series of tweets sharing facts that organic is for everyone, not just “elites,” received high engagement, likely driven by compelling images of individuals representing “the face of organic.”

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Week 4: Organic Production (Sept. 20 – 26)

Engagement remained at its robust levels well into the fourth week, as we found consumers actively sharing our research and data that illustrated how organic production can feed the world, and also outlined local and small vs. large-scale organic farming.

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Specifically on Twitter, consumers were most eager to share our facts that can feed the world, and also mitigate climate change.

Week 4 was a highly engaged week, supported in large part by multiple Twitter Parties and a broad interest in organic agriculture and production, a topic not frequently discussed in high concentration on social channels. In particular, social media followers were most interested in sharing facts about the proven returns organic certification provides farmers nationwide.

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Week 5: Organic Beyond Food (Sept. 27 – 30)

As the campaign came to a close, the festival celebrated the lesser-known silos of organic, sharing why organic fiber, home and personal care products are better for your skin and health, revealing the differences between organic and conventional textile production.

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Reach Likes Comments Shares Clicks 61,203 1,269 144 641 1,415








As with the previous week, consumers

demonstrated a heightened interest in facts that went beyond the most commonly discussed topics of the day. Among the myriad facts followers learned and shared throughout the final week, consumers on Twitter and Facebook engaged most with our “umbrella” fact – a broad overview that there is more to organic than food, with one of daily post garnering 312 retweets and its corresponding Facebook post earning 135 shares.

On Facebook, consumers were also highly interested and happy to share facts about the benefits of organic fiber, with our penultimate daily post receiving 150+ shares, often from consumers sharing why organic textiles are important to them.

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Twitter Parties

Throughout the month, our six Twitter Parties – reflecting the Festival’s various themes – featured thought leader co-hosts and sponsoring brands participating in deeper conversations with consumers and creating new opportunities for participants to share facts during concentrated periods of time.

Organic Labeling Thursday, September 3, 2015 7p ET Cohost: Gwendolyn Wyard, OTA Sponsor: Lundberg Farms

• 1,790 posts using #OrganicFestival • 248,228 users reached • 5,325,654 impressions

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Organic Health

Wednesday, September 9, 2015 7p ET Cohost: Ashley Koff, RD, Nutrition expert & Health Advocate Sponsor: Muir Glen Organic


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Organic Production: Beyond Food Tuesday, September 22, 2015 7p ET Cohost/Sponsor: Naturepedic


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Organic Value Wednesday, September 23, 2015 7p ET Cohost/Sponsor: Wild Oats


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Organic Production & the Environment Thursday, September 24, 2015 7p ET Cohost: Organic Center & Rodale Institute Sponsor: Amy’s


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Organic Fiber & Textiles Wednesday, September 30, 2015 4p ET Cohost: Marci Zaroff, eco-fashion pioneer Sponsor: Under the Canopy


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A Counter-Campaign: #FactsNotFear

As the campaign began, OTA discovered a group of primarily independent bloggers and organizations had altered #OrganicFestival graphics to likewise present their own “facts” in an attempt to confuse consumers throughout the festival. Their hashtag: #FactsNotFear.

Research showed these “Counter-Campaign” participants – primarily 10 individuals or groups – had in the past been loosely connected to organizations such as Monsanto or GMO Literacy Project. For example, one of the key participants – “March Against Myths About Modification” – had been created earlier this year in response to March Against Monsanto. However, we could find no indication that Monsanto or any other established brand or association orchestrated the #FactsNotFear campaign.

The counter-campaign’s core tactic was altering our daily graphics and often replacing with skewed or confusing science.

In addition, #FactsNotFear participants would often enter near the conclusion of our Twitter Parties, likewise posting alternate comments in an attempt to skew the conversation and/or create confusion.

OTA made a strategic decision at the beginning of the campaign not to engage or directly acknowledge the #FactsNotFear campaign for two primary reasons:

• #FactsNotFear was not interested in civility. Research on these participants’ past online engagements with individuals and organizations that support organic, sustainable agriculture and/or non-GMO showed they typically were not civil in their interactions.

• Engaging with #FactsNotFear would grant them credibility. Because the counter-campaign’s primary tactics were altering existing graphics and intellectual property as well as trolling #OrganicFestival participants, OTA felt interacting with these participants even once would open a door of incivility we would not be able to close.

OTA continuously re-evaluated this strategic decision throughout the campaign, and held to its original conclusion. This strategy worked – #FactsNotFear’s total impressions were less than 2% of #OrganicFestival. By the third week, #FactsNotFear activity began to slow. By Sept. 24, it no longer posted graphics directly countering ours.

OTA did interact with consumers who raised questions about our content or data in a civil manner - but were not part of #FactsNotFear. Our hope is that these respectful engagements helped create new organic advocates.

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APPENDIX A

More than 100 OTA members signed on in support of the campaign, with 31 members donating more than 80 prizes to participants who engaged with #OrganicFestival content!

Giveaway sponsors are in bold.

Amy's Kitchen Annie's Aura Cacia Basics Cooperative Blush Lane Organics Bridges Produce Butter Buds Cascadian Farm Castor and Pollux / ORGANIX CCOF Clif Bar Coconut Bliss COTA/OrganicWeek Crescendo Communications Dr. Bronners Dramm Corp Driscolls Earthbound Farm Eco Lips Elan Natural Flavors Elevation Burger Fig food Foster Farms Fresh Ideas Group Frontier Coop General Mills Global Organics GoOrganic Greenology Products Hain Celestial Happy Family Hidden Villa / Nest Fresh Hollandia Produce / Live Gourmet / Grower Pete’s Organic Honest Tea Horizon Distributers

International Organic Harvest Kamut International Kettle Cuisine, LLC Kimberton Whole Foods Lakeside Organic Gardens LaRocca Vineyards Late July Organic Snacks Littleton Food Coop Lundberg Family Farms Maggie's Organic Mamma Chia Melody Meyer Miso Master Miso MOM's Organic Market MOSA Motherlove Herbal Company Mountain Peoples Wine & Beer Muir Glen Mustard Seed Market Nancy's Yogurt National Co-op Grocers Naturepedic Neighborhood Co+op Grocery New Hope Natural Media Newark Natural Foods Coop Noble Carriage Northern Divine Caviar/Target Marine Hatcheries NSF International OFRF Organics Live Oregon Tilth Organic Federation of Austrailia Organic Grocer Organically Grown Organic Processing Institute

Organic Valley Organically Grown Co Pacific Foods Pacific Grain and Food Perfect Supplements Pheonix Earth Food Coop Pure Bliss Organics Quarter Acre Farm Quivera Vineyards Ribus Rudis Organic Bakery Seeds of Change Simply Organic Steaz Stonyfield Sustainable Food Trade Association Taste of Nature Teas Etc. Teecino Three Twins To Your Health Sprouted Flour Co. True Organic Products Under the Canopy Valley Natural Foods Washington Tilth Whole Foods Market Wholesome! Wilcox Farms Wild Oats Woodstock / Blue Marble Brands WSDA Organic Food Program Young Organics United

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APPENDIX B

OTA Social Channels Results The campaign also fueled an increase in participation and followers on OTA’s own social channels from pre-launch on Aug. 18 through campaign’s end on Sept. 30:

ORGANIC TRADE FACEBOOK • 5,300 new fans • 19,500 unique people reached through posts • 1.1 million page impressions

ORGANIC TRADE TWITTTER • 2,578 new followers • 6.9k @mentions • 15.5k retweets • 1.6 million page impressions

ORGANIC TRADE INSTAGRAM • 206 new followers • 550 total likes • 31 comments

ORGANIC TRADE LINKEDIN • 134 new followers • 453 Engagements (clicks, interactions)

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organic trade association organic myth-busting month social … · 2019-12-19 · to create...

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