October 26,  2020

US pork board's campaign to promote home cooking experiences of pork

The US National Pork Board has launched a new consumer marketing campaign called "Pork as a Passport" which will highlight the meat as an authentic, global protein.

The campaign will promote home cooking experiences, said Pork Checkoff's domestic marketing vice president, Angie Krieger.

"...Pork is a Passport is our launch campaign for the Real Pork master brand, and what we intend to do through the Passport campaign is celebrate pork's position as the number one protein in the global community," Kreiger explained.

"So, while pork is not the number one protein consumed here in the US, we think it should be, because around the world, a lot of consumers enjoy it. So, it's also going to help us encourage some small adventures through a culinary way for weary quarantine cooks. A lot of folks have not been eating out yet due to COVID concerns and certainly people aren't traveling as much as they usually do, but we want our home cooks to know that they can enjoy delicious pork dishes from around the world."

This is the first consumer outreach effort that is part of the Pork Checkoff's Real Pork master brand.

Kreiger added: "…the purpose of Real Pork is to celebrate the authenticity and responsibility of our industry and talk to consumers about our industry from farm-to-fork in a way that we never have before. We chose Passport as our first campaign for that because of the affinity that consumers have for flavor. And through those global flavors, then we can weave in some of these other really important brand truths, like how pork can connect our families through food. And we're also going to highlight some of our producers through connecting them with global chefs."

Krieger said it is important for producers to understand the insight that went into the development of the "Pork as a Passport" campaign.

She added: "We know that there are more and more consumers today, and especially younger consumers, so the younger millennials and those in Generation Z which are the older teens and young adults right now. They are asking a lot of questions about their food. They want to know more about how food is raised, and they want to know where their food comes from. COVID certainly highlighted some issues with the supply chain and that raises even more questions. And so, as we launched Real Pork and start talking to consumers about that, Pork as a Passport was something that resonated really well in our consumer testing. And so, we are making sure that we lean into those global flavors to talk to consumers about a variety of messages."

- KMA Broadcasting