"Butter Is Best" All Year Round
Byline: Mary Cook, WMMB Director and Wilton, WI, dairy producer

What are the holidays without freshly baked cookies and treats? Baking, decorating and exchanging holiday treats is still a tradition in millions of households around the country – including mine. In fact, the months that surround the holiday season are sometimes the only time of year that busy people take time to create their own homemade delights. I'm sure many of you have your favorite holiday recipes that the season wouldn't be complete without. Butter is a special component to holiday treats, and this is the perfect time of year to remind others that butter is still one of nature's most versatile baking ingredients.

For the third consecutive year, the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board (WMMB) and Dairy Management, Inc. (DMI) have worked together on a national promotion to urge consumers to buy and use Real butter for all their holiday baking and cooking needs. The promotion falls within the heaviest butter usage period of the year – 35 percent of all butter purchases are made in October, November and December. Butter sales last year saw almost a 2 percent increase during and after the Real butter promotion period.

This year's promotion uses both print and in-store advertising with the tagline, "Real Butter. Pure and Simple." The goal of the campaign is to remind shoppers that Real butter is the right choice for their holiday cooking and baking needs not only during the holiday seasons, but all year round.

During this holiday season, a Real butter print advertisement was seen in 14 national consumer magazines with a combined circulation of over 51,000,000 households. The full-page advertisement directed shoppers to the ButterIsBest.com website for recipes, cooking and baking tips and a wealth of other butter resources. ButterIsBest.com also features three "how to" video demonstrations showing consumers how to brown, clarify and make flavored butters at home. Some of the magazines included Bon Appetit, Ladies Home Journal, Gourmet, Midwest Living, Fine Cooking, Better Homes & Gardens, Family Circle, and Southern Living.

The national retail grocery store promotion reminded shoppers that foods made with Real butter taste better. In-store butter signage and SmartSource® Shelf Take One dispensers delivered cookie recipes to consumers right at the store dairy case. These self-service recipe stations and other Real butter signage were seen by shoppers in approximately 13,500 retail stores across the United States during December.

In addition to strong advertising support, the "Real Butter. Pure and Simple." campaign also included public relations activities aimed at local, regional and national newspapers and magazines. WMMB provided recipes, photographs, and butter usage information to food writers and reporters as they wrote their own stories about holiday baking.
A new ten-page, full color recipe brochure featuring eight new cookie recipe cards also was part of this year's holiday butter promotion. The free brochure was offered to consumers through editorial stories in newspapers, magazine tear-and-return cards and at the ButterIsBest.com website. For butter usage tips and a variety of recipes using Real butter, visit www.ButterIsBest.com.

Mary Cook, Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board Director from District 15, farms with her family in Wilton, Wisconsin.