MilkPEP CEO calls Olympics sponsorship a ‘big solution’ to a ‘big challenge’

Kadison said that she never expected that a sponsorship deal with the U.S. Olympic Committee would be a reality for MilkPEP or the milk industry.

Olympics Brigetta Barrett Jim Carper at MilkPEP presentation at 2016 Dairy Forum — High jumper Brigetta Barrett won a silver medal for TeamUSA at the London Olympic games in 2012. If *Dairy Foods* Editor Jim Carper stood up straight, she could easily high jump over his head, with about 9 inches to spare.

MilkPEP CEO Julia Kadison boldly predicted that the five-year sponsorship deal with the U.S. Olympic Committee “may be the thing that turns around milk volume from being in the red for six years to being in the black in 2016. Let’s make it happen.”

Kadison was speaking at the International Dairy Food Association’s Dairy Forum in Scottsdale, Ariz., on Jan. 26. Watch her presentation, “Milk Builds Champions: A Groundbreaking Partnership and Game Changer for Milk Brands,” on dairyfoods.com. (The event is free but email registration is required. Go to the Web Exclusives tab and then click on Webinars.)

In January, MilkPEP announced that as an official sponsor, Milk Life will support the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic teams through the Rio 2016, PyeongChang 2018 and Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The Milk Life campaign, funded by the nation’s milk companies, is designed to educate consumers about the powerful nutritional benefits of milk.

After her presentation, Kadison sat down with Editor Jim Carper for an exclusive interview for the magazine’s All Things Dairy podcast. She told Dairy Foods that the goal of the sponsorship program is to increase sales of white milk (The Coca-Cola Co. owns the rights to chocolate milk) and to restore consumer confidence in the “wholesome goodness” of milk.

Listen to the complete interview here.

Kadison said that she never expected that a sponsorship deal with the U.S. Olympic Committee would be a reality for MilkPEP or the milk industry. She said that “big challenges” (stopping the decline in gallon sales of white milk) “call for big solutions.”

While MilkPEP is on track to release its own Olympics-themed advertisements in May, individual dairy processors need to create their own ads and submit them to MilkPEP for approval.