January 2022 - 27

CHERRY MARKETING INSTITUTE
Marketing ramps up to tout tart cherry benefits
JULIE GORDON
President
Cherry Marketing Institute
www.choosecherries.com
influencer. The session will offer a guided
tart cherry product tasting session, while
informing attendees of the science-based
sleep and recovery benefits of tart cherries.
In efforts to engage the industry, we
The U.S. tart cherry promotion
program started the new fiscal year off
strong. The focus will be on positioning
U.S.-grown Montmorency tart cherries as
an on-trend ingredient for new food and
beverage innovations.
Earned media coverage. U.S.
Montmorency tart cherries earned
editorial coverage in several leading
consumer outlets in December month,
including:
* SheKnows (www.sheknows.com/
special-series/make-yourself-athome).
*
Southern Living (https://www.
southernliving.com/recipes/
christmas-morning-coffee-cake).
* All Recipes (https://www.
allrecipes.com/recipe/261168/
sheet-cake-with-sour-cherries/
and https://www.allrecipes.com/
recipe/218432/cherry-pie-filling/).
* Food & Wine (https://www.
foodandwine.com/lifestyle/bestpie-america).
*
Fox News (https://www.foxnews.
com/food-drink/morello-cherrycrumble-recipe).
Media's
interest in using tart cherries
for baked goods validates our focus on
baking and entertaining with tart cherries
this holiday season. The popularization
of baking with tart cherries also shows
a peaked interest in creating dishes that
deliver on both health and comfort
qualities, which tart cherries provide.
To secure additional coverage in
the months ahead showcasing U.S.
Montmorency tart cherries' superfruit
benefits, we are moving forward with our
plans to conduct our Sweat, Snack and Sip
virtual media event in mid-January, which
will engage editors at publications that
target the active millennials and the fresh
+ fit audiences. Media attendees will have
the opportunity to participate in a virtual
workout class led by a qualified fitness
distributed the success stories for a media
e-blast, encouraging marketers to share
food and beverage product suggestions
for the mailer that will be provided to
participating media. With at-home
workouts on the rise and sleep becoming
an increasingly recognized part of
wellness, this event will keep U.S.-grown
Montmorency tart cherries top of mind
for these on-trend conversations.
Consumer social media effort. We
continue to place consumer social media
at the forefront of our efforts in order to
reach our target audiences and share tart
cherry recipes and nutrition information.
Not only do we reach consumers through
social media, we also know that product
developers leverage social media for
new product innovations and food trend
predictions.
We are excited to share that the
first holiday campaign is now live on
Pinterest (https://www.pinterest.com/
choosecherries/baking-with-tartcherries/)
(You can view the assets at:
* https://www.pinterest.
com/pin/montmorencytart-cherry-amarettopie-646899933983042849/.
*
https://www.pinterest.com/
pin/171277592069054771/.
* https://www.pinterest.com/
pin/171277592069120006/.
* https://www.pinterest.com/pin/
tart-cherry-holiday-snack-boardin-2021--259238522291936897/.
In
total, we've garnered 708,537
impressions and 17,412 engagements
to date. The campaign inspires users to
create baked goods, desserts and snack
boards using tart cherries. The timing
of this campaign coordinates well with
holiday gatherings and entertainment as
it will continue throughout the month of
December.
Industry relations. We hosted a webinar
on Nov. 11. to kick off the new fiscal
year and share the 2021-22 promotion
program platform with industry leaders
and marketers. The webinar revealed how
the Weber Shandwick (WS) team will
execute the generic promotion program
to drive demand for U.S. Montmorency
tart cherries by inspiring new product
innovation and offering new assets for
industry use.
the marketplace. We are excited to share
a new product and verification status we
captured this month, check out this great
new product using 100% Montmorency
tart cherries: Skinnygirl Tart Cherry Juice
(www.skinnygirlcherry.com).
Cherry Marketing Institute (CMI)
Skinnygirl Cherry Tart showcased by
Skinnygirl founder Bethenny Frankel.
Additionally, we distributed a tart
cherry holiday recipe e-blast to remind
the industry of the timely opportunity
to encourage consumers to choose
U.S.-grown Montmorency tart
cherries for their seasonal baking and
entertaining. Within the e-blast, we
provided ready-to-use, top-performing
content for organizations to post on
social channels and websites. We
also look forward to finalizing the
industry one-pager. As discussed, this
material allows marketers to share a
condensed version of the full " Trend
of Tart " report with their customers.
This effort continues to spotlight U.S.
Montmorency tart cherries as a redhot
ingredient for food and beverage
product developers.
New product innovations. Inspiring
product innovations remains a focal point
of our outreach and efforts this year,
with the bulk of our business-to-business
(B2B) efforts scheduled to launch in 2022
to capture interest leading up to harvest.
As part of our B2B effort, we will continue
to track new tart cherry products that hit
annual meeting. CMI's 33rd annual
meeting is scheduled in conjunction
with the Orchard and Vineyard Show at
the Grand Traverse Resort in Traverse
City, Michigan. The meeting will be held
on Wednesday, Jan. 19, 2022, at 9 a.m.
EST. The morning session will begin
with highlights from the 2021 National
Cherry Festival.
Carolyn Westcomb from WS will
follow by providing results from last year's
promotion program and share the plans
for this year's platform. Julie Gordon
and Kyle Harris will provide an update
on how your assessments are leveraged
and the various CMI programs. The
morning session will conclude with a
lunch program that is free to all cherry
growers and processors. Director Gary
McDowell of the Michigan Department
of Agriculture and Rural Development
will be our featured luncheon speaker. To
register for lunch, call 517-669-4264 or
email Marissa at moakley@usacherries.
com. We hope to see you there!
In closing, we would like to welcome
Mark Schilling of St. Joseph, Michigan,
to the CMI board of directors. He is
a fifth-generation cherry grower who
currently farms 150 acres of tart cherries
with 100 acres in production, 200 acres
of apples, 30 acres of peaches and 200
acres of beefsteak tomatoes with his wife
Abby, brother Ben and sister-in-law Bae.
We are excited to have Mark join the
CMI team! He will be replacing Jay Jollay.
Many thanks to Jay for his service and
dedication to the industry. FGN
Don't wait to
order your trees,
Call Stan today!
INVENTORY REMAINS LIMITED ...
ORDER NOW FOR 2022, 2023 AND BEYOND
Representing the nation's premier fruit tree
nurseries to serve you, the grower, with the
best.
Put Stan's years as a grower and fruit marketer
to your advantage, services are FREE.
Stan peterson
FRUIT tree sales, llC
1-888-333-1464 | www.fruit-treesales.com
C: 231-499-9292 | F: 231-843-4113
fruit-treesales@outlook.com
FGN | JANUARY 2022 | 27
http://www.choosecherries.com http://www.skinnygirlcherry.com http://www.sheknows.com/ https://www http://www.southernliving.com/recipes/ https://www http://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/261168/ https://www.pinterest.com/ https://www.allrecipes.com/ https://www https://www.pinterest http://www.foodandwine.com/lifestyle/best https://www.foxnews https://www.pinterest.com/ https://www.pinterest.com/ https://www.pinterest.com/pin/ http://www.fruit-treesales.com
January 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of January 2022
