Wisconsin cheese wins more national and international awards than any other state or country. The tradition of excellence in America’s Dairyland began over 150 years ago, with many of the same methods practiced today. The assignment of the print campaign was to communicate the deliciousness and quality of Wisconsin cheese and to help create awareness for the standard of cheese making taking place in Wisconsin. In short, the 2015 print campaign serves as an opportunity to elevate the image of Wisconsin cheese from ordinary to extraordinary.

Creatively, our approach for the campaign was focused on sharing the deliciousness, aesthetics and versatility of the product in both visuals and headlines. Put on display is Wisconsin cheese’s undeniable ability to turn everyday ingredients into culinary masterpieces. Sure, broccoli is okay. But broccoli with a silky Wisconsin cheddar cheese sauce is outstanding. To capture this idea, we paired Wisconsin cheese with ordinary ingredients in a four-part print campaign. Each ad features an ingredient exemplified with Wisconsin cheese, explained with a playful headline, such as “Teach Broccoli How to Live a Little,” or “Naked Crackers Are Sad Crackers.” Beyond the playful copy, the heroic cheese photography gives the ads the sophisticated and artistic look needed to showcase the craftsmanship of Wisconsin cheese.

With limited budget, our primary objective for the print media plan was to maximize the number of quality impressions, while elevating the perceptions of Wisconsin cheese. We accomplished this by placing full-page ads in prominent lifestyle and epicurean publications such as Everyday with Rachel Ray and Real Simple, reaching our narrowed target of true cheese enthusiasts and foodies where they already are. Estimated impressions total more than 33 million and estimated impressions against our narrowed target total at over 14.4 million, an 24% increase from 2014 (target impressions in 2014: 11.6 million). Based on our targeted media planning approach and respective impression achieved, we feel we successfully accomplished our goal of maximizing quality impressions.