WMMB Brings Dairy Day to Miller Park
Byline: Peter Leuer, WMMB Local Markets Marketing Manager

In Wisconsin the only icons that are recognized as widely as our famous cheeses are our sports teams – the Milwaukee Brewers, the Wisconsin Badgers and, of course, the Green Bay Packers. This summer the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board is pairing the rich history of Wisconsin dairy with the favorite pastime of baseball by teaming up with Milwaukee Brewers for a "Dairy Day" game day celebration.

On Sunday, July 30, the 42,000 expected fans (a sell-out crowd) who visit Miller Park will have the opportunity to taste dairy products, watch a cheese carving and even view a cow milking contest right on the field!

Dairy Day will start with what's gearing up to be a mini-festival outside the gates of the park. Prior to game time, a number of dairy companies including Cedar Crest Ice Cream, Dean Foods, Golden Guernsey, and Kemps will offer product tasting of their milk and ice cream flavors. Cheese carvers will create Brewer-themed carvings right before fans' eyes under a cow-spotted tent at the main entrance to the park. Recipes using real Wisconsin dairy products will also be available.

The fun and education will continue inside. Each person who walks through the gate will receive a set of four nesting dolls. The dolls are replicas of four infielders and carry the Got Milk? and Wisconsin Cheese logos. These collector's items will remind people for years to come of the important role that dairy plays in Wisconsin.

The dairy celebration continues with Alice in Dairyland throwing out the first pitch of the game. Scoreboard clips of Brewer's players announcing dairy facts related to our economic value, nutritional status and rich history will play regularly throughout the game.

Directly following the game, local celebrities, Brewers players and just maybe a fan or two will take the field to participate in a cow milking contest. Cows from Cozy-Nook farm in Waukesha will join them in the middle of the field. Likely to garner positive media attention, this promises to be a fun, positive wrap-up to the day's promotion.

Word is already spreading about Dairy Day. The Milwaukee Brewers have publicized the event through newspaper, television and radio. Though the Dairy Day game is not scheduled to be televised, cheese carvings of Daron Sutton and Bill Schroeder, the Fox Sports Net announcers, are scheduled to arrive two days prior to the game, ensuring extensive dairy-related coverage throughout the weekend.

We are very excited about the opportunity to present our products and industry to thousands of Milwaukee Brewers Fans. Sports-marketing has proven to be an effective avenue to share dairy messages and promotions with consumers. Dairy Day at Miller Park will allow us to highlight our successful Wisconsin Dairy business – our products, economic value and history – to a large number of our state's residents.

Peter Leuer, local markets marketing manager at the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board, works with retail outlets and specialty cheese shops in the Wisconsin area to promote cheese and dairy product sales.