Information and advertising programme for PDO dairy products to boost consumption following the Covid-19 crisis in the internal market

During the Covid-19 crisis, French PDO dairy products were heavily affected. Sales fell sharply, distribution networks closed (markets, cheese counters service in supermarkets and superstores, out-of-home catering) and consumers abandoned their consumption. The 'CRISIS PDO DAIRY' program aims to improve knowledge of the European PDO label and boost consumption following the Covid-19 crisis. It will set place on the domestic market, in France, and will target distributors of PDO dairy products and consumers aged 25 to 49. More precisely, the targeted distributors will be the sellers of the traditional delicatessen counters in supermarkets and superstores, a distribution network which represents 65% of sales of PDO cheeses. 
The objectives are:
- to increase the level of knowledge regarding the guarantees provided by the European PDO label by 4% among delicatessen counter retailers 
- and to maintain the growth rate of annual consumer purchases of PDO dairy products at + 1.58%. 
To achieve these objectives, CNIEL offers two main actions. The first one is to support and train the sellers of the cheese counters service in supermarkets and the second action consists in redesigning the PDO dairy products website in order to adapt it to the target (content and accessibility). These actions will improve the knowledge of PDO dairy products but also of the guarantees provided by the European PDO label (origin, traceability, quality, etc). To carry out these two main actions, it will be necessary to create appropriate communication tools: promotional kits for PDO dairy products will be produced and diffused to distributors, new photos of PDO dairy products will be produced to use them on communication media and an online advertising campaign will be carried out to increase the visibility of the new website. These actions will be accompanied by continuous PR throughout the program. The total budget for the program is € 454,995.35.