Butter, Delicious All Year

The holiday baking season might now be in the rearview mirror, but there are still a few cookies lingering in my kitchen. Of course, these cookies were made even more delicious with real butter.

Dairy Management Inc. (DMI) helps fund the Go Bold With Butter marketing campaign managed by the American Butter Institute (ABI). The campaign has three main objectives – to maintain a positive perception for butter, increase butter usage and build consumer trust and understanding about where butter comes from.

Each fall, Go Bold with Butter hosts a holiday cookie contest and typically sees around 1,000 entries. ABI narrows the entries to the top finalists, bakes the cookies from the submitted recipes and mails them to the judges. I had the enjoyable job of judging this year’s entries and surely won’t turn down the offer if it comes my way next year.

As judges, we assess ease of the baking process, evaluate the amount of dairy used and, of course, critique the flavor.

This year’s winning entry was Peppermint Stuffed Chocolate Crinkle Cookies.

Like any good dairy competition, there was also an Undeniably Dairy Judges Choice winner given to the recipe that used the most dairy overall, not just butter. This recogniation went to the Red Velvet 7 Layer Bars that use butter, cream cheese and sweetened condensed milk.

The winning entries are featured at goboldwithbutter.com and across social media channels.

While we’re still tallying metrics from this year’s webpage visitors, we typically see 30,000+ clicks to these recipes from social media and other online promotions.

The holiday season may now be over, but our love for butter lasts all year.

During last summer’s grilling season, Go Bold with Butter promoted butter bombs.

Butter isn’t always associated with grilling, but butter bombs are fun, easy to make and add flavor to your favorite grilling recipes. They are a mixture of butter with herbs, spices and seasonings rolled into a ball that is chilled and slowly melts over grilled food

items. Think of a hot cocoa bomb, but for your steak and filled with blue cheese and bacon bits. There are also sweet options like cinnamon and honey butter bombs for grilled peaches.

DMI and ABI created butter bomb inspiration videos to share on social media, which were viewed more than 2.89 million times.

Go Bold with Butter also promoted dairy-filled dessert recipes on Pinterest, where many consumers turn for recipe ideas and inspiration. These recipes led to more than 20,000 clicks to the Go Bold with Butter website.

We know there are a lot of butter alternatives consumers see at the grocery store. We aim to reach consumers with educational and enteraining content about the benefits of choosing real butter. We also highlight dairy farmers and all the hard work that goes into bringing butter to the grocery store shelves.

We are gearing up for a new round of promotions in 2024 to inspire consumers to choose real butter. Butter is top of mind during the holiday season, but there is a real appetite for it year-round.

No matter the season, your dairy checkoff team is working to promote real dairy.

Make sure to follow Go Bold with Butter and Undeniably Dairy on your favorite social media channels to keep up with the latest efforts to connect consumers to dairy.

To learn more about your national dairy checkoff, visit www.USDairy.com/forfarmers or send an email to TalkToTheCheckoff@dairy.org.