Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
Now why would someone with a last name like Hu, be in a frenzy over St. Patrick’s Day? I feel I’m honorary Irish, having had the Irish Dairy Board (Kerrygold brand butter and cheese) as my client for the past four years.
I’ve been to Ireland three times on business and love the food, the land and the people. And just to show you how “Irish” I am, we are having Irish stew simmered with a splash of Guinness for dinner tonight and more to accompany the meal, and I’ll whip up a quick soda bread to serve with plenty of Kerrygold Pure Irish Butter to melt over the warm slices.
One of the challenges of public relations is getting a client’s brand name mentioned in the media. The media is averse to mentioning brands if the generic name will do. Our job in public relations is to find reasons why the brand is important to the news story. So for Kerrygold, we use St. Patrick’s Day as the obvious news hook, making my work life intense from January through March 17. If there’s any time the media might say “Kerrygold” it is in conjunction with this observance. And if readers learn about the brand and try our butter and cheeses during St. Patrick’s Day, you can bet they won’t wait around until another St. Patrick’s Day to repurchase these delicious products.
This year, we’ve had great success with telling the Kerrygold story to newspapers and on TV. There are good reasons to use the brand name if you can explain why the products are different from others in the category. For example, Kerrygold butter and cheeses are made from the milk of grass-fed cows. The dairy products are golden from the natural beta-carotene in the grass that transfers into the milk. This is a simple, good and authentic story, and this year we’ve also profiled some of the artisans involved in making the products, who shared their Irish recipes.
I just came back from New York City last night after a luncheon we hosted yesterday for magazine food editors at a top restaurant appropriately named Butter. Talented executive chef Alexandra Guarnaschelli created a fabulous menu using Kerrygold Butter, Cheddar and Ivernia cheese. During the cheese tasting that preceded the lunch, she served little cheese biscuits that were incredibly light and airy pillows, still warm from the oven. Our guest speaker was Rachel Allen, one of the hottest TV cooking stars in Ireland and the UK, who talked about St. Patrick’s Day in Ireland, the renowned Ballymaloe Cookery School where she teaches (she is also married to the son of the founder) and about the foods of Ireland, including the country’s long history in dairying.
The luncheon gave us a way to showcase how Kerrygold Cheddar made a rich and flavorful Fondue Tart and how perfectly buttery and mouthwateringly tender a Crostada crust can be when Kerrygiold butter is used. The brand does make the difference in each case, adding distinctive flavor and texture to the dish.
In public relations, showing and telling — and sometimes eating — is the best way to make a point. There’s no guarantee that anyone with whom we communicated will tell our Kerrygold story. But having been both a newspaper and magazine food editor, I know we’ve given it a good shot. And in the end, that’s what PR is all about.
