Today, the Mushroom Council plays a very important role in the national promotion of fresh mushrooms through consumer public relations, foodservice communications and retail communications. Many different venues are used to promote fresh mushrooms to consumers, such as working with professional chefs in developing and promoting new recipes, working with produce department managers to maintain the highest quality mushroom product for customers and sending out thousands of brochures each year to consumers hungry for new mushroom ideas.
As part of Mushroom Council’s sponsorship, Food Network hosted a custom contest on FoodNetwork.com: Blended Burger Contest. The goals of the campaign were to broaden awareness of “The Blend” cooking technique and blended burgers among mainstream audiences, encourage home cooks and pros to blend mushrooms with meat (or alternative meats) for burgers that are more nutritious, delicious, and sustainable, and educate about mushroom varieties and mushroom and meat/meat alternative flavor pairings.
As part of Mushroom Council’s sponsorship, Food Network hosted a custom contest on FoodNetwork.com: Blended Burger Contest. The contest offered entrants an opportunity to win a $10,000 cash prize with a submission of their own blended burger recipe (a recipe containing 25% mushrooms and 75% meat) . The contest had an entry period from May 3rd to June 25th. During this time, there were several elements driving visits to the entry page, including a Food Network advertorial social video hosted by talent Kardea Brown, Food Network Magazine ads and recipe inserts, digital newsletters, digital ad units, and a :15 linear TV driver creative.
The Blended Burger Contest entry page saw 72,982 visits, generating 1,314 entries. Of the total entrants, there were 535 customer opt-ins, exceeding the benchmark for Discovery custom contests.
The social video delivered 2,325,343 impressions, generating 1,009,450 views and 30,919 engagements across sharing, saving, commenting and reacting. Both Facebook and Instagram saw strong performance with viewer retention and engagement.
Facebook delivered 1,195,647 impressions, reaching 548K+ unique users. The video generated 499,041 views. Compared to Food Network advertorial social video benchmarks, Facebook viewers were more likely to click on the post (238 index) and more likely to engage with the post (279 index). Engagement was strongest with commenting (470 index), saving (322 index) and reacting (304 index). The post generated 12,794 link clicks to FoodNetwork.com, a 1.070% click-through rate, exceeding the 0.450% benchmark.
Instagram delivered 1,129,696 impressions, and 510,409 video views. Viewers were more likely to engage with the post (369 index) compared to benchmarks. Engagement was strongest with saving (497 index), sharing (448 index), and reacting (319 index). Instagram generated 1,875 link clicks to FoodNetwork.com, -- indexing 237 vs benchmark.
