April 2010 Industry News

Are You Going Pink for Profit?

The Mushroom Council is partnering with City of Hope for a second year in a row to reinstate the pink promotion for this October during National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. During last year’s pink campaign, the mushroom industry saw record high sales in October 2009 with mushroom receipts having climbed 6.7 percent in dollar volume and 12.3 percent in pound volume, according to Freshlook Marketing. It appears that consumers have spoken and that going pink can lead to increased sales. Agreements have been mailed out to all handlers. If you would like to participate please return the completed agreement to the Council office. If you have any questions contact the Council at (408) 432-7210 or cheryl@mushroomcouncil.org.

SHIPMENT SUMMARY

Mushroom Council First Handler Reports (millions of pounds; totals may not match due to rounding).

Current Charts	Jan-10	Jan-09	% change	YTD 10	YTD 09	% change
Total Shipments	61.22	60.33	1.47	61.22	60.33	1.47
Domestic Shipments	53.31	52.37	1.80	53.31	52.37	1.80
PA	32.15	31.34	2.58	32.15	31.34	2.58
CA	9.12	9.45	-3.51	9.12	9.45	-3.51
Rest of US	12.04	11.58	4.02	12.04	11.58	4.02
Imports	7.91	7.97	-0.72	7.91	7.97	-0.72

COUNCIL UPDATE

The call for nominations for terms beginning January 1, 2011 for regions 1 (All states except for CA & PA), 2 (PA) and 3 (CA) have been mailed. Please turn in your nominations by May 3rd.

The next Council meeting will be held on May 20-21, 2010 in Chicago. Please let us know if you are interested in attending this meeting.

Sample Truck Panels and order forms have been mailed out. If you have not yet placed your order for more panels and would like to do so, please complete the order form and fax in to the Council office by April 30^th. To see the artwork click here, to see the style guide click here.

If you are a handler and complete handler reports you need to become “certified” through the Council. If you have not yet been certified, please contact the Council office and arrange your certification with Cheryl.

MARKETING SUMMARY

TOTAL IMPRESSIONS/PLACEMENTS TO DATE:

March impressions overview:

Program	March 2010 Impressions	% of March 2009 Impressions	Total Year Impressions to Date*	% of Annual Goal
Consumer/Nutrition	76,902,113	128%	247,592,704	45%
Foodservice	1,044,731	136%	2,257,338	59%
Retail	55,710	28%	741,469	47%

        In March, the Mushroom Council had an average of 58 percent share of voice. While
        conducting proactive media outreach, we generally expect Mushroom Council coverage to
        represent between 33-75 percent of mushroom placements, according to average consumer
        product and commodity industry standards. Note that there are always external factors or
        industry forces that could change that metric.

Mushroom Share of Voice:

Week Ending	Mushroom Council Generated Placements	% of Total Mushroom Coverage**	Type of Outreach
March 6	9	69 percent	Proactive
March 13	8	100 percent	Proactive
March 20	8	57 percent	Proactive
March 27	9	43 percent	Proactive
March 31	3	38 percent	Proactive
Total	37	58 percent	Proactive

**This does not include mushroom recipe coverage that is not Council-generated.

February 2010 Sales

Fresh mushroom sales continue to rise, up 7.4% in dollars and 7.8% in pounds for the period ending February 21, 2010, according to FreshLook Marketing. In February alone, fresh mushrooms contributed to an additional 67 million dollars in sales for retailers nationwide.**
**These figures do not include club stores or supercenters.

Mushrooms in the News and Online:

The Council held a strong presence in long-lead media publications throughout the month of March, securing more than 18.5 million impressions. Highlights boast inclusion on a list of “foods you should eat” in Women’s Health; mushrooms’ immunity benefits in Fitness; cancer-fighting potential in Weight Watchers; and the positive role in weight maintenance on Self.com.

The Council partnered with one of the world’s leading vitamin D experts, Dr. Michael Holick, MD, PhD, to highlight PP2’s focus on educating consumers that all mushrooms have vitamin D and are the only source in the produce section. The timing for this partnership coincides with the release of Holick’s latest book, The Vitamin D Solution. In a New York Times Magazine article, Holick was asked if any vegetables are a source of this critical nutrient. “It turns out, curiously, that mushrooms contain vitamin D,” he replied. This interview generated more than 21 million impressions; click here to read the full article. A press release announcing Holick’s new book also noted mushrooms as a source of D, gaining additional traction on health and science-focused Web sites at the end of March. Further media outreach with Holick will unfold in the coming weeks.

As a part of the Council’s PP2 partnership, Dr. Holick will be leveraged for nutrition and health influencer outreach. Holick will be attending 14 professional conferences to discuss the importance of vitamin D and will be featuring mushroom messaging in his presentations via a slide prepared by the Council. In March, Holick presented at “Women’s Health 2010: The 18^th Annual Congress” in Washington, DC exposing the mushroom D message to more than 1,000 health influencers at this event alone.

The Council conducted a successful book giveaway on Twitter to continue activities with PP1 spokesperson Keri Glassman, MS, RD. For ten days, the Council posted a tweet announcing the giveaway and alerted followers to be on the lookout for mushroom facts with the #O2Diet hash tag; the first person who re-tweeted the #O2Diet mushroom fact won a copy of Glassman’s new book, The O2 Diet. This initiative generated more than 37,000 Twitter impressions featuring Council messages. A guest Q&A blog post featuring Glassman’s answers to user-generated questions will also be featured on the Mushroom Channel in April. Overall, the media placements resulting from the Council’s partnership with Glassman garnered more than 41 million impressions across print, online, television and radio channels.

facebook

The second-annual “Mushrooms: Every Day, Every Way” recipe contest with Taste of Home officially kicked-off at the beginning of March. The contest runs until August 1, 2010 and winners will be announced during National Mushroom Month. The 2009 recipe contest was one of the biggest for Taste of Home, proving that people love mushrooms for their taste and versatility. This year’s categories have been revised to best match the interest of Taste of Home readers, including: Breakfast; Appetizers and Sides; and Main Dish.

Overall, in just four weeks more than 200 contest entries were received. Taste of Home announced the Council’s contest on its Facebook page (which has more than 40,000 fans) on March 23, earning 28 “likes” and 61 comments. Through traditional media, the contest has yielded print coverage in two prominent short-lead publications, the Sacramento Bee and Arkansas Democrat Gazette, as well as several outlets online, generating nearly 3.8 million impressions.Encourage your family and friends to visit the contest and share details with others to help spread the word. (Note: Council members and their families are ineligible for the competition.)

A full outline of the Council’s PP2 activities was distributed to industry via e-mail on April 5, 2010. Be sure to note the scheduled activities to determine if you have any alternate programming you would like to incorporate.

Mushroom Council placements represented an average of 58 percent of total mushroom news, which is within the norm of 33 to 75 percent during a period of proactive outreach. To view all March placements, click here.

In March, MushroomInfo.com and MushroomChannel.com experienced a combined total of 13,065 unique visitors, a 3% decrease compared to February’s total unique visitors. Look for a new facelift to MushroomInfo.com coming soon in April.

Twitter and Mushroom Channel subscriber numbers have continued to rise steadily. The Council has 1,603Twitter and Facebook followers to date. Obtaining these followers resulted in 298,842 total online exposures in March, a 78% increase over February’s total of 167,963. Some of the latest top-influencers to follow the Mushroom Channel include the health editors of Ladies’ Home Journal, rock band G. Love & Special Sauce and Food Network Canada. To see the Council’s top 100 followers, click here.

The Taste of Home Cooking Schools also kicked off in March, highlighting mushrooms as a featured ingredient at 140 events nationwide. This event partnership includes:

A ten minute demonstration of the Council’s Fresh Mushroom Clafouti recipe. As consumer cooking enthusiasts watch this demonstration, the health benefits of mushrooms and simple cooking techniques using fresh mushrooms will be shared.

During the on-stage cooking demonstration the culinary specialist will also identify an audience member wearing pink and bring her up on stage to give her the prepared Clafouti dish. Council key messages about the City of Hope partnership and the research on mushrooms and breast cancer will be shared with the audience.

The Spring 2010 Taste of Home Cooking School Cookbook is being disseminated at each Cooking School event, expected to reach nearly 600,000 attendees. This will generate more than 18 million media impressions as the cookbook features eight different Council recipes and a full color page advertisement highlighting mushroom health benefits.

Taste of Home is continuing to distribute the two Council-generated press releases in Cooking School markets, which to date, have garnered more than 1.5 million impressions from various local short-lead outlets.

Check out Taste of Home’s Cooking School schedule. To attend a show in your area, contact Cheryl Abbate and we will help secure tickets for you and a guest.

On the Retail Front:

The Council developed a year-end press release for 2009 and distributed it to retail publications. Fresh mushrooms were the best performing vegetable among the top 20 retail produce categories in 2009 according to FreshLook Marketing for the period ending December 27, 2009. This continued growth propelled retail sales nationwide to nearly 800 million dollars for the year. To view this press release and include it in your sales kits, click here.

The PP1 retail newsletter was distributed, and featured two articles that aim to prompt timely conversations with retail customers. Articles included First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! initiative to combat childhood obesity within one generation, and a case study that provided a customer’s point of view based on February’s “Reverse Twitter” campaign.

The Council developed the PP2 retail sell sheet which highlights mushrooms’ continued success at retail and increasing consumer demand. Use this in conversations with retailers to demonstrate mushrooms’ value as a retail generator regardless of the economic times.

Mushrooms were featured in Natural Products Marketplace for their immune boosting nutrients, as well as in Produce Business which detailed best practices to increase mushrooms sales. These combined placements resulted in 55,710 impressions for the month of March.

The Council pursues editorial opportunities on an ongoing basis to promote mushrooms with various trade publications. Please share with us any news or information from your region for the following upcoming opportunities:

For a more detailed report click here (most recent Mushrooms Top Line report).
For larger image, click here.

On the Foodservice Front:

The Council published the PP2 foodservice sell sheet featuring new statistics about the growing popularity of mushrooms on the menu in 2009 and the QSR race to feature a “premium” mushroom burger. The sheet also offers information about mushrooms and umami, the culinary techniques that best bring out umami in mushrooms, and how umami can help lower sodium. It also includes two chef testimonials and recipes that showcase mushrooms and umami.

The Council published a new 2010 How-To Guide about mushroom promotions in foodservice that growers can use to host their own promotions locally. The guide features case studies of promotions carried out by the Mushroom Council including marketing programs with large food management companies, smaller regional chains and national chains. The step-by-step instructions demonstrate how growers can use these tried and true examples to help increase their own mushroom sales in a number of market sectors, drive foodservice sales through Limited Time Offers, and execute their own mobile marketing campaigns.

Foodservice media outreach resulted in an article in Restaurant Hospitality featuring Chef Ben deVries’ Shaved Portabella Salad. Flavor and the Menu detailed how chefs are using the umami content in mushrooms to help achieve sodium reduction goals, and in another article about soup, called out mushrooms as one of the top-ten best flavor enhancers. Other March placements included mushrooms in ground meat, beef, salad and Italian cuisine stories.

The 2010 foodservice photo shoot was held from March 30–31, resulting in eight new photographs that are now available on the Mushroomcouncil.org recipe page. The Council “live Tweeted” from the event to share real-time updates with Mushroom Channel followers and posted a behind-the-scenes photo album on Facebook. The eight new foodservice photos will be leveraged in relevant efforts across both foodservice and consumer initiatives, MushroomInfo.com, the Mushroom Channel, Twitter/Facebook, newsletters, sales kit materials and collateral.

As an encore to last year’s successful Harvard mushroom festival, the Council hosted another mushroom promotion with Harvard Dining Services. In mid-March, Harvard staged a mushroom pizza recipe contest among the students of the 13 residence halls. Pizza judging took place on March 23 with student entrants assembling pizzas in the dining hall. The winning mushroom pizzas from the contest were served in the dining halls on March 31. Students were able to learn about mushroom nutrition and how mushrooms are grown while enjoying mushroom pizza and other mushroom menu items. The Council “live Tweeted” from the event to share real-time updates with Twitter followers and posted a photo album on Facebook. A blog post on the Mushroom Channel will be featured in April as well.

To expand its presence among collegiate foodservice leaders, the Council hosted the “Best Mushroom Recipe Goes to Indianapolis” contest among Big Ten Conference foodservice directors. This contest spurred interest from both local and national media outlets, including features in Journal and Courier, Chronicle of Higher Education, and CBS affiliate WLFI-TV, generating nearly one million impressions throughout March.

To see new mushroom menu items for March, click here.