This past holiday season, dairy was front and center for families across the upper Midwest through Coborn’s Dairy & Merry: Festive Bites Made Simple campaign. The partnership highlighted how dairy helps make holiday hosting easier, tastier, and more approachable during one of the busiest times of the year.
The campaign was designed around what matters most to today’s shoppers. According to Mintel research, the top drivers of food choices are taste, price, freshness, healthfulness, and convenience. By pairing dairy-forward recipes with simple entertaining ideas, the campaign showed shoppers how dairy checks all five boxes, helping them create festive meals without extra stress.
Trusted Voices Bring Dairy into Homes
A standout moment came on December 3, when a Coborn’s dietitian featured dairy-based holiday recipes during a Twin Cities Live segment. This on-air appearance brought dairy directly into living rooms across the region, reinforcing how dairy delivers on both flavor and freshness while supporting healthful holiday choices.
Seeing dairy highlighted by a trusted nutrition professional helped strengthen confidence in dairy as part of balanced holiday meals and everyday entertaining.
Recipes That Make Hosting Simple
Crowd-pleasing and on-trend recipes anchored the campaign, showing how versatile dairy can be during the holidays. Featured dishes included:
- Blue Cheese Deviled Eggs
- Cheese-Stuffed Mushrooms
- Roasted Carrots with Ricotta
- Caprese Holiday Wreath
- Holiday Baked Brie
- Whipped Feta Cranberry Dip
These recipes made it easy for shoppers to serve dishes that felt special without being complicated. From creamy dips to festive cheese boards, dairy helped turn everyday ingredients into celebration-worthy foods.
Moving Shoppers from Inspiration to Purchase
The campaign reached shoppers through a mix of online and in-store tactics, including digital and email banner ads, in-store signage and displays, social media content, and a featured digital cottage cheese coupon. This approach helped guide shoppers from recipe inspiration to action at the shelf.
Altogether, the campaign reached more than 477,000 consumers and generated 84,686 incremental pounds of milk, showing that holiday inspiration translated into real demand for dairy.
Dairy at the Heart of Holiday Moments
As families gathered to celebrate, dairy played a key role in bringing people together through food. From appetizers to main dishes, dairy helped make holiday moments richer, simpler, and more delicious, delivering value back to dairy farm families.