Moo Lab

Client

Midwest Dairy

Challenge

Moooove over millennials. Meet Gen Z: the Frappuccino-sipping, high-achieving population bulge known as our first mobile natives. Dairy marketers are turning their attention to this critical crop of consumers, the oldest of whom are college students. While fluid milk consumption is down overall, those 19 and younger are leaving milk at the highest rate. Midwest Dairy, representing 7,000 dairy farm families, asked Curious Plot “How do we create positive buzz around dairy on campus?”

Solution

Tapping our in-house Gen Zers, aka our awesome interns, we milked the latest food trend and the popularity of Instagram to produce the Moo Lab pop-up. Inviting college students to destress with dairy, Moo Lab visited the University of Minnesota and Iowa State University during the height of midterm season to serve moon milk. This warm, frothy, milk-based beverage was recently described by Health magazine as “a trendy new insomnia fighter … popping up all over social media, often in colorful hues.”

After identifying the right vendor partners, we created a hip menu of moon milk that featured swirls, sprinkles and spritzes of functional ingredients like activated charcoal, turmeric, ginger and dark chocolate. Being irresistibly Instagrammable, students were able to create the perfect photo of their moon milk with a few provided props. In this moment of respite, we then asked students how they would bring more comfort to the world. Students responded by sharing their ideas on Instagram using #CupsofComfort. Dairy club members on both campuses helped host the event to connect with their peers and share stories about the goodness of local dairy.

The event resulted in more than 1,500 cups of moon milk served to students over two, five-hour serving periods on each campus.

Other wins included:

A boost to Midwest Dairy’s Instagram channel with 1.7k video views, 4.4k engagements, 260.2k impressions and a 7.8% increase in followers during the campaign.
Campus moon milk activities scored a coveted lede in USA Today and the Chicago Sun-Times as well as a foodie feature in the Des Moines Register.
Midwest Dairy earned recognition among its stakeholders with media coverage in seven dairy and agriculture industry media outlets.