The summer grilling season celebrated beef in the heavily populated Northeast this summer, though many beef lovers continue to grill at home throughout the year. The beef checkoff partnered with 17 retailers in the Northeast for the 2010 Stay Home Grill Out promotion. In total, 367 store locations featured recipe booklets, shelf wobblers and meat department posters from May through September. Shoppers participating in the Stay Home Grill Out promotion had the chance to enter to win a grand prize of $500 in free groceries plus a Weber grill by entering in at StayHomeGrillOut.com. Runner-up prizes included professional BBQ tool sets and The Healthy Beef Cookbook.
Lucy Williams from Suffolk, Va., was selected as the Grand Prize Winner. Williams is a shopper at Balducci’s Food Lover’s Market, based in Bethesda, Md.
“We were thrilled that one of our customers won the Grand Prize,” says Michael Lamb, director of meat sales and merchandising for Balducci’s and King’s Super Markets. “The ‘Stay Home Grill Out’ promotion helped both the Kings and Baldacci banner stores by relieving the pressure on the meal makers to have to dine out to have a great steak. We were able to promote relatively underutilized cuts of beef such as the Denver Steak and the boneless chuck short ribs to an extent that we had not thought possible or practical in the past. Whenever we can be in tune with a social need of the customer and still provide great tasting center of plate, it's a win-win.”
Through its Northeast Beef Promotion Initiative (NEBPI), the checkoff partnered with eight new retailers in Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York and Maryland for the 2010 summer grilling promotion this year.
“It is exciting to see retail participation increase each year that we offer these checkoff-funded promotions,” says Christie Molinaro, NEBPI director of retail and foodservice. “Our website, StayHomeGrillOut.com, was exceptionally successful this year, with an increase of 12.5 percent for our sweepstakes entries and a 16-percent increase of our website visitors. Although the promotion is over, consumers are able to log on and view recipes along and nutritional information.”
For more information about checkoff-funded activities, visit MyBeefCheckoff.com.
Source: The Beef Checkoff
