Dairy Farmers of Canada wins big at International Milk Promotions Awards

New innovative five second ad spots take top honours

MONTREAL , Sept. 24 /CNW Telbec/ - Dairy Farmers of Canada (DFC) is pleased to announce it has been presented with this year's International Milk Promotions (IMP) trophy at the International Dairy Federation World Dairy Summit in Berlin . The "Building Milk Volume Five Seconds at a Time" campaign, developed by DFC's marketing team in cooperation with Due North Communications, M2 Universal and Head Gear Animation was named the winner of the prestigious Yves Boutonnat Trophy.

The campaign features new and completely innovative 5-second 'DOT Spots' designed to grab teenagers' attention and keep them interested. A total of 129 spots were created, including cinema-specific, online and mobile phone-specific spots, using random scenarios to communicate one milk benefit at a time in a way that is relevant to teens.

"Teenagers, one of the largest groups of milk consumers, understand the many benefits of milk, but our challenge was that they were not drawn to milk from a brand perspective." said Ian MacDonald Director of Marketing and Nutrition with DFC, "Our strategy was to entertain and educate teens quickly, let them 'catch' the spots, put the pieces together and make up their mind to choose milk."

"The five second DOT ads have been a fabulous success both in terms of driving milk sales and in changing teens' perceptions and increasing their interest in drinking milk," said MacDonald. "We are delighted the International Milk community has chosen to recognize Canada's leadership in creating new and creative ways to communicate with consumers about dairy products."

"As always, all entries demonstrated the good work going on around the world to promote the interests of dairy. The campaigns covered a diverse range of topics from promoting dairy health messages directly to general practitioners via representatives from the pharmaceutical industry to efforts to revitalize the importance of the entire dairy industry in providing healthy nutritious foods to consumers. All the campaigns showed a positive effect on the attitudes and behaviour of consumers to favour and stimulate consumption of dairy products", said Craig Plymesser, Chairman of the IMP.

The award winning DOT spots have now been developed into the first ever 3D ads and could be seen throughout Ontario and the Maritimes at Cineplex theatres this summer.

About Dairy Farmers of Canada

Dairy Farmers of Canada (DFC) promotes the wholesome goodness of dairy products as part of a healthy, balanced diet and encourages good nutrition for all Canadians. DFC is completely funded by dairy producers.

About the Yves Boutonnat International Milk Promotion Trophy.

The IMP Trophy competition was initiated in 1989 by the IMP Group. It is a means of showcasing, to dairy farming and industry delegates attending the annual IDF World Dairy Summit, the best generic advertising campaigns created recently amongst the group. In honour of one of their founding member, Yves Boutonnat, it is now called the Yves Boutonnat International Milk Promotion Trophy.

About the International Dairy Federation

The International Dairy Federation is the pre-eminent source of scientific and technical expertise for all stakeholders in the dairy chain. IDF is represented in 58 countries and membership is growing: IDF accounts for approximately 86% of the world's milk production at present. IDF aims to identify, elaborate and disseminate best practice at international level in order to guide the dairy sector and to harmonize members' work on a variety of issues along the dairy production chain including animal health and welfare, protection of the environment, nutrition, food safety and hygiene and food standards.

For further information: Solange Heiss, Assistant Director, Communications, Dairy Farmers of Canada, 1-800-361-4632