Challenge
The Canadian Cattle Association (CCA) is the national industry voice of Canada’s 60,000 beef farms and feedlots. In Spring 2022, Health Canada, with little advanced warning, notified the beef farming industry that it was moving forward with its proposed “high in” saturated food warning label to be displayed on ground beef products sold at grocery stores across Canada. The CCA was extremely concerned that these unprecedented fat warning labeling requirements would lead consumers to believe that ground beef was now unhealthy and would no longer be viewed by Canadians as the nutrient-dense, single-ingredient healthy protein that it is. The Association engaged Crestview Strategy to assist them in taking all the necessary steps to respond to and mitigate this critical industry issue as quickly as possible.
Approach
In less than a week, a nimble Crestview Strategy rapid response team worked with CCA and planned, developed, launched, and then actively managed an integrated national stakeholder mobilization campaign to stand up for Canadian beef farmers and ranchers and support the beef industry in both official languages.
Crestview Strategy created the “Don’t Label My Beef” digital marketing campaign to create immediate high levels of stakeholder and public awareness and understanding of the potential negative impact of Health Canada’s pending labeling change, encouraging supporters to strongly advocate on behalf of beef farmers and ranchers. The agency adopted an evidence-based, common-sense messaging positioning strategy to explain to stakeholders why ground beef should be exempt from Health Canada’s warning labeling.
Crestview Strategy’s Mobilizer™, the agency’s proprietary digital mobilization platform, and contact system, also played a critical role in the implementation of the advocacy campaign to convince Health Canada to reconsider its labeling policy. The digital platform identified, contacted, and mobilized beef producers, stakeholders, influencers, and other concerned Canadians to call for change. Tactics included targeted digital advertising, the “Don’t Label My Beef” campaign page, customized social media content, and other advocacy tactics.
Results
Together, CCA and Crestview Strategy told Health Canada – don’t label my beef, and they listened. In less than two weeks, the “Don’t Label My Beef” advocacy campaign successfully attracted and signed up 10,000 new supporters, sending thousands of messages to elected officials across the country calling for change. As a result of these efforts and together with CCA’s ongoing advocacy activities, Health Canada quickly reversed its decision to put a warning label on ground beef.
Work Samples
Content produced by Crestview Strategy for the Don’t Label my Beef Campaign can be accessed at https://www.dontlabelmybeef.ca/.
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