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American Dairy Association Mideast

Hosting an Extraordin-DAIRY Adventure with Ohio’s Top Food Bloggers

The Project

For the fourth year, Inspire worked with the American Dairy Association Mideast to organize a 2.5-day event for 10 prominent national food bloggers based in Cleveland, Ohio. The event was designed to enable bloggers to follow milk’s journey from farm to fridge and share the story with their large and engaged networks of followers, building trust in dairy farming, Ohio’s farmers, the milk supply and the dairy foods.

During the event, the bloggers visited both a small and a large northeast Ohio dairy farm, which offered them a chance to see that, no matter the size of the farm, dairy farmers take equally good care of their cows and protect the environment. The bloggers arrived at the first farm at sunrise, in time for the morning milking. They each milked a cow using a milking machine in the parlor—most for the first time. The group also visited a cheese maker that makes award-winning Swiss cheese and visited the second farm, where they fed baby calves and learned about manure management. Along the way, they met Ohio dairy farming families and had the opportunity to ask questions.

The bloggers enjoyed dinner on the field at First Energy Stadium with special guest Cleveland Browns tackle Joe Thomas, who supports the Fuel Up to Play 60 program, a partnership between the National Dairy Council and the NFL to encourage students to eat healthy and get 60 minutes of exercise per day. In addition, the group ate breakfast in the classroom with students at a local elementary school, where they learned about the significant impact a healthy school breakfast has on students’ ability to learn and succeed. Throughout the event, the bloggers were encouraged to ask questions about dairy and join in discussions about milk safety and nutrition.

The Results

  • Posts the bloggers shared about their experiences were viewed 31,500 times by 2.25 million readers and were shared on social media 2,630 times.
  • During the event, the bloggers shared more than 300 social media updates with a combined 2,250,582 Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat followers.
  • The bloggers expressed that the experience changed how they thought about milk and dairy farming.