Have you been to a McDonald’s lately? They are creatively marketing your milk to their loyal consumers through Milk Chugs and McCafe drinks, and new cheeseburgers and frappés, other menu items.

Same goes at Domino’s with more cheese on their pizzas and new cheesy products. Same at Pizza Hut. And Taco Bell. These are some of the partners the checkoff works with to move more dairy than ever before.

Some farmers were unhappy that we stopped our popular generic ads to focus on a long-term strategy to work with category leaders to make changes that would stimulate more dairy sales in their own businesses and in their me-too competitors’ businesses.

But when you look at the situation and the numbers, there should be no argument. Popular TV ads and billboards on lonely county roads don’t sell more milk or bring in millions of extra dollars to sell more milk.

Partnerships do.

Just telling people how good dairy is for them doesn’t help flat to dropping pizza cheese sales or boost dairy’s presence and consumption in tens of thousands of schools serving millions and millions of kids.

Partnerships do.

Through the checkoff’s partnership with McDonald’s, just looking at milk alone since 2009, we have moved more than 3 billion pounds of milk through the round resealable Milk Chugs and McCafe milk-based coffee drinks. And others followed suit at no additional cost to you.

Through the checkoff’s partnership with Domino’s and others beginning in 2009, we have increased other-than-American cheese consumption, utilizing 8 billion pounds of incremental milk.

Through the checkoff’s partnership with Quaker, that company’s retail test of a “Make It With Milk” promotion – to get consumers to switch from water to milk when making their oatmeal – brought a big lift to fluid sales, totaling an estimated 180-plus million pounds of milk. Just one test, and it has led to others testing the same thing.

Partners in fluid

Following this long-term strategy to use others’ resources in concert with checkoff funding, we have recently entered into new fluid milk partnerships with major players such as Coca-Cola, DFA and Kroger. These partnerships are focused on turning around a decades-long slide in the category.

Critical to turning things around, these partners collectively are investing an estimated $500 million of their own money into infrastructure improvements and innovation with the goal of moving more of your fluid milk through new products and new opportunities.

First out of the gate, and getting everyone talking, is the new “Fairlife” milk, created by Select Milk Producers and marketed and distributed by Coca-Cola’s Minute Maid Division. Targeted at consumers of milk’s plant-based competitors, Fairlife outpaced expectations in test markets last year.

Fairlife took volume from the non-dairy drinks (such as soy and almond) and even brought more sales into the milk category overall. Fairlife is rolling out nationally this spring, boasting 50 percent more protein and 30 percent more calcium than other milks.

What’s so important about this introduction is not only what it will do for sales on its own, but the impact it is likely to have on other beverage processors and marketers. With Coca-Cola investing heavily in milk as a growth opportunity, it puts milk in the headlines, changes the way it is viewed as a business proposition and will get others to consider investment now and in the longer term.

Partnering with leaders causes change to happen throughout entire categories. We’ve seen it in the burger chains, in pizza and elsewhere. Now we’ll see it in fluid milk.

Interestingly, some in the industry have been reluctant to enter into partnerships because they worry a partner might gain more than we do from the agreement. But in our experience, if we win and they win, it’s a good thing. A partner who does well is much more motivated to keep doing what we agreed to do and will sign up again and again. And the more they do, the more milk they move for us.

In other words, when our partners win, we win even more. PD

Local spotlight

Your state and regional promotion organizations work with national and local partners to showcase dairy locally, recognize the value of dairy farm families and move more product. Here are some highlights:

Florida

Before one of Florida Gators’ football games, Florida Dairy Farmers joined forces with the Gators, Domino’s and MilkPEP to promote “The Great American Milk Drive.” Fans who made a $5 Milk Drive donation at the FDF booth outside the stadium received a $5 Domino’s gift card. Milk Drive messaging was on display, stadium shuttles were outfitted with donation information, and a call for donations was shown on the scoreboard throughout the game attended by 88,000-plus fans.

Arizona

More than 90 percent of Arizona schools offer breakfast, yet the state ranks 27th in breakfast participation nationwide. The Dairy Council of Arizona saw this as an opportunity to partner with Smucker’s on a program to increase breakfast participation in the Queen Creek School District.

Seven schools in the district agreed to pilot the program, which includes exciting new point-of-service options to attract students and drive sales of dairy products as well as Smucker’s Uncrustables.

Washington

It was Thanksgiving on the Mayflower last November when the Dairy Farmers of Washington, Domino’s and radio station 106.1 KISS FM Seattle asked the public to fill a Mayflower moving van with non-perishable food to benefit Northwest Harvest Food Bank. For every pallet of food donated, Domino’s and the Dairy Farmers of Washington matched it with a pallet of fresh milk. Twenty-two pallets of milk were donated.

Maine

At Maine Dairy Night at the University of Maine Black Bears hockey games in Orono, the Maine Dairy Promotion Board has traditionally handed out packets of hot chocolate to attendees with a sticker that says, “Make it with Milk.” Because of the checkoff’s national partnership with Quaker Oats, they did the same thing with packages of oatmeal this year.

PHOTOS
TOP: Gators fans donate milk to food banks and get a Domino’s gift card for the effort.

MIDDLE: This Mayflower is full of milk for food banks donated by the public and matched by the Dairy Farmers of Washington and Domino’s.

BOTTOM: Maine dairy farmers encourage U of M hockey fans to make their oatmeal with milk.

Test your answer

How much are our seven fluid milk partners investing in innovation and infrastructure improvements to make long-term changes in milk and turn the category around?

ANSWER: Our fluid milk partners are investing more than $500 million into long-needed changes that will change the face of milk and cause other processors to do the same thing.

On the web

• DairyGood – Click to find the many ways the dairy checkoff is building and reinforcing consumer trust in you and your products.

• Milk Life – Visit to make a milk donation or learn more about the Great American Milk Drive.

• Dairy.org – Visit to learn more about your checkoff and find links to all your local promotion organizations.

Your Dairy Checkoff in Action – This update is provided by Dairy Management Inc. (DMI), which manages the national dairy checkoff program on behalf of America’s dairy producers and dairy importers. DMI is the domestic and international planning and management organization responsible for increasing sales of and demand for dairy products and ingredients.