Did you ever think your dairy could do more with MilkPEP programs like Body by Milk and Think About Your Drink? Do you wish you had more time to take advantage of what these campaigns offer to help you sell more milk?

Well it might be worth spending an hour with Mike Simmons, MilkPEP’s dir. of processor relations. Simmons was hired in early 2006, with the goal of helping processors increase milk sales by taking full advantage of the marketing and retail programs available through MilkPEP.

“It can be a one-on-one or something with 100 sales people, I’ve found both types of meetings extremely beneficial,” says Simmons, who’s based in Dallas.  “I’ve seen some smaller processors that have just totally embraced the programs and run with them because they might not have the financial resources to do some of these things on their own, but we have larger ones that have been successful too.” 

Simmons says many processor presidents or sales executives can’t find time to tap into these resources, even though they are already paid for. That’s where he comes in. Simmons is on call to answer questions, navigate through program execution details, and answer any questions. To date, he has visited more than 70 processor locations and racked up over 110,000 airline miles.

MilkPEP’s promotional materials, including Got Milk? posters, are available to processors at no additional costs.

In 2007 MilkPEP has a slate of programs that might be more effective than any before. 

The Think About Your Drink campaign, based on the What America Drinks beverage report is the platform for all of this year’s MilkPEP activities, both at retail and in schools. This new program adds greater impact to the already successful “24/24—Milk Your Diet. Lose Weight”. Processors can have access to a complete tool kit, which includes customizable press releases, ad templates, circulars for stores, and artwork templates, by calling the milk hotline.

Processors are encouraged to take advantage of upcoming promotions and in turn excite their retailers. For example, April features a promotion called “Another Season, Another Reason” and in September the “Give Your Family Something Smarter” promotion debuts. Each of these programs revolves around the importance of drinking milk and why it’s an essential beverage for adults and children, in light of the results of the What America Drinks report.

The “Body by Milk” program continues in schools across the U.S. This campaign speaks to teens about a healthy, active lifestyle which includes drinking milk. At the heart of the program is an online auction at www.bodybymilk.com where teens use milk UPC codes as currency to buy cool stuff like sportswear, electronics and jeans.

There are several options for finding out more and for stepping up participation.

You can visit www.milkpep.org to review all of the resources and tools available—specifically, see the “got news” section of the site, which has an extensive list of materials available.  Or, call 800/945-MILK to order merchandising and promotional materials, tool kits, retail packaging support and other resources. Finally, you can contact Mike Simmons at 202/420-0468 or email him at msimmons@idfa.org to get the full details and deadlines, or to schedule a meeting to review current plans.

Sidebar: Joseph Edward Gallo Dies at 87

Pioneer dairy farmer and cheesemaker Joseph Edward Gallo Jr., has died . He was 87.

Gallo died in his Livingston, Calif., home Feb. 17 after a long illness. His farm operation, one of the largest in the nation, was among the first to convert manure into usable energy, and it was recognized recently with IDFA’s Innovative Dairy Farmer of the Year award.

Gallo was also the founder of Joseph Farms Cheese, a successful venture that at one point put him at odds with his winemaker brothers over the use of the family name.