NFRA's Golden Penguin Awards

The National Frozen & Refrigerated Foods Association (NFRA) recently held its 12th annual Golden Penguin Awards Competition to recognize the best merchandising efforts in support of June Dairy Month. The June promotion helped the industry drive traffic in the refrigerated dairy aisles and increase sales for many categories and brands. NFRA honored 14 Gold Penguin and 18 Silver Penguin winners for their promotional excellence. In addition, 2 companies received the distinguished Amber Penguin signifying a company has won three consecutive Gold awards in the same category. See the complete list of winners. Judges looked for the most creative efforts using the June Dairy Month logo/theme during a month-long program. Winning entries demonstrated the effective use of promotional elements such as in-store programs, advertising, consumer education, creative use of merchandising materials and special displays. The Gold awards will be presented at the Grand Awards Banquet during NFRA’s Convention in Orlando, FL, October 14, 2014. Silver awards are typically presented at the local level at appropriate refrigerated food association meetings. Joined by 18 participating brands, NFRA increased awareness for June Dairy Month by distributing a two-page FSI to 20 million consumers across the country on June 1, 2014, as well as distributed digital coupons through a partnership with Coupons.com. A $10,000 consumer sweepstakes engaged fans on NFRA’s Easy Home Meals social media channels throughout the month of June. Additionally, NFRA’s partner, the Mr. Food Test Kitchen, focused on June Dairy Month with a special TV spot broadcasted to more than 4 million households on June 6, 2014. To promote June Dairy Month, NFRA partnered with online hub, Bakespace.com and their #KitchenParty on Google Hangout, to host two live video chats with celeb spokesperson Aida Mollenkamp and influential blogger Gaby Dalkin to engage consumers with recipes and how-to’s in the kitchen. To capitalize on the trend toward smaller meals, NFRA’s partner bloggers developed a “snack-size” series of visual content and recipes positioning the refrigerated dairy aisle as a go-to destination for snacking.