MILK RUN
HOW DO YOU CHANGE THE WORLD?
ONE MEAL AT A TIME
MilkRun empowers consumers to enjoy quality local foods sustainably. Their model supports local purveyors and celebrates the traditions and stories behind your best meals. Founded in Portland, Oregon, the company expanded rapidly during the pandemic and moved into Seattle and Austin.
MilkRun needed to establish themselves as a credible food provider in these new markets by tapping into local sustainable food culture.
Challenge:
Solution:
joyful was tasked with strategizing, conceptualizing and producing a multi-channel campaign for three cities to promote brand awareness for the company. The guidance from the client was concise: they requested an approach that was provocative, simple, and left people wanting to know more about the company.
Step one was to chisel out MilkRun’s niche in the food delivery sector. MilkRun stands alone by providing consumers with locally produced goods, freedom of choice, and delivery services. No other distributor of farm-fresh food delivers in all of these areas.
Next, they needed a succinct tagline that could be used in all of its regions. MilkRun uses less packaging, provides fresher and more nutritious food directly from
farms, has fewer emissions and less pollution caused by transportation, promotes sustainable land use, promotes community and sustains traditions. We distilled this into: Local. Farms. Delivered.
Then, in order to build a connection between local farmers and consumers, we
wanted to teach consumers the benefit of sourcing food locally. MilkRun’s products have dramatically more visual appeal than the mass produced food purchased at grocery stores. We tied this key element of MilkRun’s business into the brand’s acknowledgement of the Radical Farmer to create a simple way of showcasing what MilkRun brings to the table.
Finally, we developed a launch strategy to kick off MilkRun operations in new markets. Our creative team focused on four core tenets: celebrate the farmers,
focus on local, place matters, and stress the small stuff.
The plan for launch events was shaped around these principles and focused on celebrating our VIP guests: the farmers who put their blood, sweat, and tears into the food and products they produce. We selected local musicians to perform at the events and hired local production teams rather than outsource so that we could make a true investment into the community. The venues were selected based on their commitment to regenerating the land and doing the right thing for the environment. To bring it all together, renowned chefs in each city will design meals using ingredients provided by the farmers.
Results:
Through this comprehensive campaign, MilkRun successfully grew their brand and new customer goals were exceeded in all three markets.
“
joyful quickly tapped into the magic of our culture of supporting local farmers. They amplified our culture with beautiful and compelling campaigns that brought our team and local farmers together in an intimate yet scalable way. These guys are culture ninjas.
- Julia Niiro
Founder & CEO, Milk Run