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The American Egg Board Brings Home the
Gold for its Marketing Eggcellence

The American Egg Board (AEB) was recognized with the Golden Egg Award for Excellence in Marketing at the 2008 International Egg Commission (IEC) Conference held September 14-18 in Shanghai. Countries presented their successful marketing programs to compete for the coveted award, which recognizes the best national marketing and promotional campaign. Joanne Ivy, President and CEO of the American Egg Board, presented and accepted the award-winning marketing program on behalf of the United States.

“I feel honored to accept the prestigious award on behalf of the United States,” said Ivy. “I think the award is very important to the egg industry, as it encourages associations to share ideas and

best practice marketing approaches for continued success in promoting the benefits of eggs and ultimately egg sales.”

Countries competing for the award were asked to prepare a ten-minute visual presentation. Ivy’s presentation gave an overview of the economic climate in the U.S., limited program budgets and other challenges the organization faced, which in turn, helped illuminate its efforts throughout the year. Ivy presented the overall strategy to define the organization’s focus on women, aged 25 to 54, with children living at home.

AEB devised a fully integrated approach to surround moms wherever they are – whether they’re watching television, surfing the Web or reading a magazine. However, home was just part of the strategy, since nearly one third of Americans eat breakfast away from home, so Quick Service Restaurants (QSR) were also a focus, along with retail channels. The integrated campaign tactics included a strategic, branded entertainment partnership with the “Rachel Ray Show”, new print advertisements focused heavily on the industry’s ‘Incredible!’ message and a viral application to create buzz about a contest to promote the ease of cooking with eggs.

The integrated program generated positive results across the board – reaching moms and surrounding them with the ‘Incredible!’ message and surpassing more than 1 billion consumer impressions. Additionally, with AEB’s efforts also focusing on QSRs and retailers, more than 600 million more eggs are being sold in the foodservice channel than just two years ago, and sales in the egg category only decreased 1.8 percent at retail despite the highest egg prices in history.

About the American Egg Board (AEB)
AEB is the U.S. egg producer's link to the consumer in communicating the value of The incredible edible egg™ and is funded from a national legislative checkoff on all egg production from companies with greater than 75,000 layers, in the continental United States. The board consists of 18 members and 18 alternates from all regions of the country who are appointed by the Secretary of Agriculture. The AEB staff carries out the programs under the board direction. AEB is located in Park Ridge, Ill. Visit www.incredibleegg.org for more information.