The Issue. Fonterra Food Services (Fonterra) provides high-quality dairy products to commercial kitchens across Australia.

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1 Name: Grant Smith Company Name: Edelman Category 8: Business to Business Entry Name: FONTERRA PROUD TO BE A CHEF: DRIVING AWARENESS AND ENTRIES FROM APPRENTICE CHEFS WITH FONTERRA PROUD TO BE A CHEF The Issue. Fonterra Food Services (Fonterra) provides high-quality dairy products to commercial kitchens across Australia. For 14 years, Fonterra had run its annual Proud to be a Chef (PTBAC) competition, providing the chance for apprentice chefs to receive extensive culinary master classes from Australia s leading chefs, with one apprentice winning an international culinary scholarship. PTBAC establishes many long-term relationships between Fonterra and Australia s emerging and established chefs. Partnering with educational institutions helps Fonterra build quality, long-lasting relationships with future chefs and existing kitchens in pubs, clubs, healthcare and accommodation facilities, as well as the more well-known fine dining restaurants. In 2013 Fonterra tasked Edelman with tackling three objectives: 1. Increase entries for the 2013 competition 2. Secure applications from every State and Territory, while diversifying the range of establishments finalists represented 3. Create wider awareness of Fonterra s commitment to the Australian catering industry by facilitating at least 20 new relationships with catering businesses across Australia through the course of the competition RESEARCH Primary and secondary research included: Analysing previous years entrant applications Qualitative interviews with entrants from previous competitions.

2 Media consumption of target audiences, sourced through OMD. Social media consumption, including peak engagement times for target audiences Industry standards for service times, in-shift access to media and social media, and relative influence of relevant trade media. INSIGHTS Several insights proved integral to developing an effective, multi-faceted strategy: 35 percent of chefs cite their mothers and grandmothers as the key influences on their decision to pursue a culinary career Peers, family members, teachers and other chefs were all identified as secondary, influencers for apprentice chefs Facebook was identified as a key channel for apprentices, but not during typical peak periods due to the demands of kitchen service times Local newspapers and radio remained the major forms of day-time media consumed by our parents and grandparents The 2014 Edelman Trust Barometer found Australian adults have highest trust in traditional media (compared to social) Strategy. The insights derived from our research required a multi-stage strategy to: 1. Prompt: parents, grandparents and supervising chefs to encourage relevant apprentices to enter PTBAC 2. Guide: learning institutions and workplaces on how to assist their apprentices who were entering PTBAC 3. Support: emerging apprentices by connecting them with each other, past entrants and other industry peers in an open forum Our strategy mapped the following influence pathway :

3 - Family influencers observe local and national media coverage of PTBAC and initiate an entry conversation with their apprentice - The apprentice seeks details from workplace or TaFE - Supervising chefs stimulate further interest and support their apprentices with reference to details published in trade media - Chefs, teachers and peers would provide encouragement to prospective entrants, through sharing of entry criteria, success stories or referral to online information - Apprentices visit either the PTBAC website or Facebook page to fulfil their entry requirements Execution Execution involved two phases: Phase One securing entries Media Relations PTBAC 2013 entries opened by profiling previous years finalists in local media across Australia. Local newspapers featured a local hero. Utilising previous years entrants also meant that each had gone on to new heights in their career since participating in PTBAC. We used a similar approach with trade and national media, however focused the hero stories on recent winners and the high-profile chefs from across Australia who were participating as either judges or coaches through the competition. All media activity referred apprentices to PTBAC entry details. Social Media Activation We built a People s Choice Facebook application, allowing community members to anyone to nominate apprentices who otherwise hadn t entered. A team of Fonterra judges shortlisted 10 candidates, who were then profiled on Facebook for a final public vote the winner of which won a place in the finals. Awareness of PTBAC raised via highly targeted Facebook advertising, promoted posts and organic content. Paid content targeted key audience activity on Facebook during known participation times.

4 Phase Two maintaining momentum Social Media Activation Each finalist was profiled on Facebook, highlighting their PTBAC learning journey via organic content Behind-the-scenes content, produced throughout the competition, helped showcase Fonterra s partnership with industry. Media Relations We repeated the local heroes media campaign, this time focusing on our 32 finalists to maintain community interest in PTBAC, with several apprentices appearing on national radio and TV. Innovation. Edelman identified that the commitment funnel for entrants had a high degree of leakage through the path to entry. We therefore designed the PTBAC Facebook community to be a single-source destination, facilitating information sharing, community cheer-leading and helping applicants submit their entries directly via a custom-built Facebook application. Results and Evaluation Our stated communication objectives were: 1. Increase the number of apprentices entering the 2013 PTBAC competition a. The 2013 PTBAC competition beat previous years entries with 143 apprentices entering (and 23 People s Choice nominations) 2. Diversify the entrant pool, ensuring representation from every State and Territory, as well as broadening the range of establishments finalists represented

5 a. The 2013 PTBAC entrant pool included applicants from every State and Territory, with a competition-best intake from Western Australia. b. More than 12 percent of entrants represented pubs and clubs, cafes, healthcare and accommodation food service providers. 3. Create wider awareness of Fonterra s commitment to the Australian catering industry by facilitating at least 20 new relationships with catering businesses across Australia through the course of the competition a. During our campaign period, Fonterra developed 40 new relationships within the catering industry and new reference contacts at 50 educational institutions around Australia. In achieving these results Edelman generated: 146 targeted stories in national, local and trade media, with call for entry stories including relevant entry details More than 1.9 million total social media impressions, growing the PTBAC Facebook community by 22 percent For the first time in PTBAC history, 14 percent of nominations were driven directly through social media nominations by friends and families.