Food Marketing Network Review:
Potatoes, the Casandra of the vegetable world, have had a make over by some really smart people in the USA.

It is a great example of approaching a mature category and giving it a lift.

read on…

‘Quick & Healthy’ Potato Campaign Changing Attitudes

Potato classics have gone convenient and digital. The United States Potato Board (USPB) recently launched a campaign to help remove the time barrier between busy moms and potatoes, with a new collection of Quick & Healthy Potato Recipes.

The six most popular online searches for potato recipes — baked, mashed, fries, soups, salads and casseroles — were updated to be and enhanced with several flavor variations, for a total of 24 new potato recipes to please every palate. Six one-minute educational videos were also rolled out last month through a multimedia online news release, which generated secondary exposure via links to recipe pages on www.potatogoodness.com, as well as links to the videos on the Potato Goodness YouTube channel, www.youtube.com/user/PotatoGoodness.

USPB officials said interest surrounding quick and healthy spuds has been extraordinarily high, and as of Oct. 1, 205 online news outlets including Forbes.com, BizJournals.com, Yahoo! and Health Square has picked up the story.

“Positive attitudes toward potato nutrition are on the rise,” noted Meredith Myers, spokeswoman for the Denver-based USPB. “This outreach is aimed at making potatoes part of dinner on Tuesday evening, which happens within a 30-minute window” for many busy families.

To maximize the reach of its health and convenience messaging, the USPB also created and added a Facebook Fan Page, “Potatoes, Taters and Spuds” (http://tinyurl.com/potatoesonfacebook), to its fleet of communications vehicles. The social platform offers some of the most interesting recipes USPB has created; links to chef celebrities, writers and registered dietitians proclaiming their adoration for potatoes; photos; and the entire collection of Quick & Healthy cooking videos. The “wall” conversations are transparent discussions about potato topics: new potato dishes, favorite potatoes, new potato products, nutrition issues, and even potato news clips and videos.

The Quick & Healthy program was designed so any industry member or organization could leverage it for its own business. The full collection of recipes and videos is at retailers’ disposal, including high-quality photos and recipes, POS materials and promotions. Retailers can also embed the videos onto their Web sites.

For more information, contact Myers at meredithm@uspotatoes.com