Superheroes in promoting fluid milk consumption

Farm broadcaster puts promotion in motion by giving out Slammers Ultimate Milk Shakes at local Wisconsin school district

On May 20, 2004, Brian Winnekins, farm director and broadcaster for WTMB-WBOG in Tomah, Wis., handed out over 500 samples of Bravo! Brands Slammers Ultimate Milk Shakes, featuring Marvel comic characters, to students in the Norwalk Ontairo Wilton school district in Wisconsin. The following two audio clips were aired following the in-school promotion. Clip 1: Farm broadcaster Brian Winnekins gets student’s take on new Slammers Ultimate Milk Shakes at Brookwood Elementary, Middle and High School. Clip 2: Farm broadcaster Brian Winnekins talks to Brookwood school nurse Jacki Riles, about getting kids to drink more milk.

The first time Brian Winnekins, farm director and broadcaster for WTMB-WBOG, Tomah, Wis., tasted a Slammers flavored milk drink produced by Bravo! Brands, he recalls thinking, “Wow this is great.” The single serve flavored milk product in an extended shelf life package was made with 100 percent milk and sported recognizable characters that kids love.

“I contacted the company and later ordered 250 Slammers for the Midwest Farm Show at LeCross, Wis. At the show they were gone within two hours,” says Winnekins. “We couldn’t give them out fast enough. The kids just loved and the parents did to. By the time we made our way home that day we knew we had found something that will help dairy farmers sell more milk and help get kids off pop.”

Following that success, Winnekins worked to make Slammers available for a Junior. Dairy Club fund raiser and later at a local county Dairy Breakfast. The more people tried Slammers the more requests for information about Bravo! products he received.

That’s when word got out that a local school district was looking for a healthy beverage with less sugar and a longer shelf life.

“I talked to the superintendent of the Norwalk Ontairo Wilton school district about providing samples to the students and he said, “‘Here’s when the lunch hours are. Come on out we’d love to have you.’”

So on May 20, Winnekins broadcast team and Bravo’s own Ben Patipa, M.D, vice president in charge of school and vending business for Bravo!, served over 500 students samples of Slammers Ultimate Milk Shakes, featuring Marvel comic characters, during lunch.

“We had samples for all of the kids K-12,” explains Winnekins. “Basically we just started handing them out right in the line. We just let the kids try them. Let them look at them, taste them and I got to talk to them and see what they thought.”

Brian Winnekins puts promotion in motion by giving out Slammers Ultimate Milk Shakes at local Wisconsin school district

Getting kids off the pop

“The kids love to drink flavored milk,” says Jacki Riles, school nurse at the Brookwood Elementary, Middle and High School. “We need to compete against pop which has no nutritional value. I’m excited about it and excited about the Slim Slammers, which have no added sugar.

“The challenge is that milk does not taste as good as pop unless it is flavored,” adds Riles. “We have to compete against that. We see to many kids making the wrong choices. We are seeing more childhood obesity and more diabetes.”

Studies have shown that childhood diabetes is on the rise and children are out of shape because of poor eating habits and not enough exercise. Kids are less active thanks in part to more computers and more televisions. In 2001, teen per-capita consumption of fluid milk was up for the first time in six years. It climbed to 22 gallons—nearly a 3 percent increase. In 2002 per-capita consumption among teens was up another 6.8 percent. Flavored milk now accounts for 7.4 percent of all milk sold.

When serving school children, the greatest problem is getting kids to make the most nutritious choices. The dairy industry has made strides in recent years by offering better flavor, more flavors, improved packaging, and even shelf stability – by making milk fun.

“The current milk machine in the school is really good. But I would like to see the 1 percent milk Slammers come in because they have fewer calories,” says Riles.

Leading up to the in-school promotion, Winnekins hosted individuals throughout the week asking them to sample Slammers on the air and talk about their reaction. On the day of the event, Winnekins hosted Ben Patipa, on the air to talk about the Slammers product.

“You know us as Looney Tunes and we were in the 11.5 plastic bottle and also in the long shelf life prisma package,” explains Patipa. “What we learned was that ESL did well for us for a period of time, but the demographics of them was not as great as we hoped. Warner Brothers assured us that the Looney tunes characters would attract kids from ages 4 to 14. What we learned was that it attracted from 4 to 8 years of age. Outside of that demographic we didn’t really have a competitive advantage.

In February 2004, Bravo developed a license agreement with Marvel Enterprises, Inc. to use its world-famous Super Heroes® to promote its branded milk products. Marvel, one of the world’s most prominent character-based entertainment companies, owns popular characters such as Spider-Man™, Wolverine™, the Incredible Hulk™, Daredevil™ and Captain America™. In addition Bravo moved to a 16 once Extended Shelf Life (ESL) bottle that has a 180-day shelf life.

“Marvel’s “Spiderman I” movie did really well, with record sales and “Spiderman II” is coming out this month,” explains Patipa. They have a schedule of eight feature films in the next couple of years. And thanks to the movie success, Marvel merchandising sales exceed $3 billion in 2003. Marvel had a license available and an opportunity for us to bring more attraction to the product than Looney Tunes was capable of doing.”

Slammers come in five different character packages in the 16-once bottle. They are now call them “Slammers Ultimate Milk Shakes” instead of just milk in order to command a higher price. The new Slammers Ultimate Milk Shakes are a little more indulgent and are a little thicker.

As part of the new promotion, Bravo! will enhance its already vitamin enriched milk by incorporating the particular attributes associated with each Marvel Super Hero in its product. Bravo’s vanilla milk will feature Marvel’s Captain America™ and include a “Super Serum” of 20 percent of the recommended daily allowance of 10 essential vitamins to reflect the hero’s super athletic ability. The company’s chocolate “web” milk container will display Marvel’s Spider-Man™ and include omega 3, vitamin E and choline as a boost to brainpower. Bravo’s cookies-and-cream flavor, coined “cookies and green,” branded with the Incredible Hulk™ and powered with a boost of B-complex vitamins to tap consumers’ “inner strengths.”

Bravo also produces Slammers with strawberry and caramel flavors. Its strawberry milk, called “Dark Strawberry,” features Marvel’s Daredevil™ character on the package and is fortified with vitamin E, lycopene and ginseng to heighten senses similar to the character’s keen perception. Bravo’s caramel milk, labeled “Fierce Caramel,” promotes Marvel’s Wolverine™ of the X-Men. and includes added antioxidants, vitamins A and B, and green tea extract to boost the immune system, reflecting the character’s super healing powers.

“The kids loved the flavors and thought that it tasted great,” reports Winnekins. “Once we explained what Slammers were to the first group of kids it just took off. I saw one particular group of five guys, each one took a different flavor and were all trying each different flavor.”

“It was great to witness how the kids embrace the products,” admits Patipa. “Today we introduced kids to the Marvel package and saw kids from elementary all the way through high school embrace it readily. From Bravo’s perspective, it validated that the new path we have chosen is a correct one. As a pediatrician myself, I feel good because my ultimate goal and objective was to increase fluid milk consumption in kids.”

Slamming the slim

The superintendent noticed that the Heresy’s product contained 320 calories and 55 carbohydrates. The Bravo Slammers Ultimate Milk Shake made with 1 percent milk contains only 100 calories, 12 carbohydrates and no added sugar. But don’t tell that to the kids drinking them.

“We made the mistake of thinking that kids - offered a diet and a regular beverage - would choose the diet,” admits Patipa. “But by calling the product Slim Slammers, it had a negative connotation and it wasn’t embraces as we had hoped. Kids didn’t want to be defined as being fat by what they were drinking. We had the right product in the wrong packaging with the wrong connotation.”

Schools, however, still embrace the 1 percent milk product that contains a third more calcium, packaged in the Marvel characters. So Bravo! plans to continue supplying schools with the version of Slammers that meets their needs without Slim in the name.

Adults need nutrition too

When the industry began to take steps 10 or 12 years ago to move toward new single serve containers and broaden the flavors, no one could have anticipated that epidemic obesity and low-carbohydrate diets would one day be getting so much attention. In addition to introducing new packaging for a youth audience, Bravo! has introduced a number of new flavored milk products aimed at the adult consumer and health conscience consumer as well.

“At our school, we are also doing a staff wellness program, so our staff is becoming more aware of what they are eating,” explains Nurse Riles. “It’s not only our kids, it’s the parents and the adults that need to change their eating and drinking habits as well.”

Today, low-carb dairy beverages, which are essentially milk with less lactose and more protein, have joined the other designer milk offerings

In the original Looney Tunes Slim Slammers, Bravo believes it had the right nutritional formulation, but packaged it for the wrong demographics.

Bravo! now has Slim Slammers in a new adult-oriented package featuring an hourglass shape with a tape-measure graphic around it. It is being offered in Chocolate Fudge and French Vanilla flavors.

“It’s for adults who are weight conscience or carb conscious because it has half the calories and half the carbohydrates,” explains Patipa. “And we have calcium fortified it because of the importance of having more calcium in your diet especially as you age.”

Bravo has also broadened the Slammers line by partnering with Chattanooga Bakery and building on the heritage and loyalty of the Moon Pie.

Sports drinks are all the rage so Bravo! will also be launching a Pro Slammers line. Available in prisma as well as the 16 once bottle, Pro Slammers will have an energy blast with two times the regular amount of protein. This fortified “sports shake” is marketed in three flavors including Mocha Slam, Hard Chocolate and Vanilla Rage. It will be made with two percent milk and contain 240 calories.

A national footprint

Since the introduction of Slammers featuring Marvel characters, Bravo! has expanded its distribution to a national level. Slammers will now be in Wal-Mart Super Centers and Super Targets across the country. Convenience store, 7-Eleven, carried the Looney Tunes Slammers in 2003 but greatly increased orders and distribution with the introduction of the 16-once ESL bottles with Marvel characters.

“It’s phenomenal that in our first ordering cycle following the launch of the Marvel Slammers this last month, we have already eclipsed our sales of the entire year of Looney Tunes Slammers,” admits Petipa. “From a sales perspective, we use to have to go out and ‘sell’ the product. Now when we go out to customers we are basically order takers.”

Patipa says that the aggressive movie launch schedule that Marvel has in the works provides a tremendous amount of momentum and push around the Slammers products.

“I saw that first hand in dealing with Road Ranger convenient stores in Wisconsin,” says Winnekins. “I showed the product to the manager of one of their 50 stores, provided some literature and he ordered.”

“And we didn’t have to sell Road Ranger in any sense of the word. They called and placed an order,” adds Patipa. “And that is happening all across the country. We are getting traction in places that we hadn’t even anticipated. Marvel has helped, the quality of the product has helped and the new bottle size has helped.”

Prior to the release of the Marvel label, Slammers where sold in an 11.5 once bottle which led to a pricing issue. Slammers were the small guy on the shelf and charging the same as the others. Now Slammers in a 16 once bottle are competing successfully with the competition.

“I think as our sales grow, fluid sales grow over all,” says Patipa. “The opinion is that this is a viable channel through which to increase fluid milk sales over all.”

Extending milk vending

During the school lunch sample program, discussions with the food service director and superintendent pointed toward vending being the first opportunity for getting Slammers to the school kids. Slammers ultimate milk shakes are not a lunch line product per se, according to Patipa, and their school does not offer ala cart food service, so vending appears to be the best opportunity.

“Our experience has taught us that we can expand sales through vending,” says Patipa. “Breaking into the school-vending arena has met with many challenges but the packaging, shelf life and good taste gives us a competitive advantage.”

“A neat thing about this school district is that the milk vending machine is in the cafeteria, which is where they have study hall,” relates Winnekins. “And while they can’t buy soda during school hours, they can buy milk from vending.”

“Flavored milk sales outsells white milk in vending 9 to 1; this is a way to really drive those fluid sales,” adds Patipa. “If we can be the fuel to drive fluid milk sales than we have accomplished what we have set out to do.”

Vending is not without its challenges though. Vending machines are required and a system to stock the machine and collect the proceeds is necessary. Bravo! Brands, being a small, brand-development company cannot own and place vending machines in every school. But with the help of strategic partners Bravo! hopes to make more machines available.

Parties interested in introducing the Slammers products to their local school administrator or promoting the placement of milk vending in your local school district can contact Dr. Benjamin Patipa at (561) 625-1411 or email ben.patipa@bravobrands.com. He can help you contact one of the 300 Vistar-VSA vendor representatives across the country to present material, samples and service to schools or business interested in providing Slammers products and/or vending machines.