Wisconsin cheese has a massive brand perception problem. When people think of Wisconsin, they think about big blocks of orange cheese, Cheeseheads at Packer games and huge factories making ordinary cheese. That’s it. Not great, right?
The thing is, the reality of Wisconsin far different than those surface-level perceptions. People don’t know that we win more awards for our Specialty cheeses than any place on earth – more than the other 49 states combined. They don’t know Wisconsin is more innovative in creating more original kinds of cheese than France, or that we have the only Master Cheesemaker program in the world outside Switzerland. They don’t know the depths of cultural obsession that have helped make Wisconsin “The State of Cheese”.
What people don’t know about Wisconsin cheese could fill a library. So, we launched a paid social media campaign to turn those shallow perceptions around. A key secondary objective was to brand the Proudly Wisconsin badge so that over time consumers become conditioned to look for Wisconsin cheeses at retail, whether at their local cheese shop or on their laptop at home.
Additionally, beyond building a buzz around Wisconsin, this campaign was a strategic powerhouse, giving us valuable insights to shape future social media efforts. We aimed to gain an understanding of what truly resonates and which content types and formats drive the most engagement.
At its core, this campaign wasn’t just about social media posts, it was about telling the story of Wisconsin as The State of Cheese.
We set out to do more than just market Wisconsin Cheese, we wanted to create a social media experience Food Fanatics couldn’t resist. This ultra-passionate 3% of food lovers aren’t casual cheese fans; they crave insider knowledge, expert-level storytelling and discovery-worthy experiences to share with their communities.
We conducted research with these audiences and there were three things we identified that we could give them that they would value: Stories, Education and Inspiration. Our audiences know that everything is better and more elevated when it comes with a great story, so telling better, more engaging stories was our top priority. They are also compulsively driven to seek out the new, the novel and the interesting piece of information – all with the goal of being a Master of the Universe that their friends and families rely on for tips and recommendations. Our third strategic pillar is Inspiration, in which we seek to remind our audiences why they fell in love with cheese in the first place, and share that here in Wisconsin, we feel the very same way.
With the knowledge that 88% of Food Fanatics hunger for insider information, we built our content around six content pillars – a mix of videos, illustrations and animated gifs -– designed to stand out in one's feed, educate, inspire and set the record straight about Wisconsin cheeses:
This custom mix of assets showed that Wisconsin isn't just another pretty cheese board, we provide an immersive, storytelling-driven experience.
One key step was determining the best metric to calculate success for the campaign. Views and likes have become less indicative of a campaign's success as time goes on. Therefore, we prioritized shares and saves, knowing that these actions signal not just passive interest, but perceived value and audience endorsement, a sign that Food Fanatics found the content worth remembering and passing along.
Optimizing for engagement, to our delight, meant more comments than ever before, creating a new challenge for community management. We quickly implemented a response strategy, prioritizing high-value, genuine interactions while ensuring all comments were acknowledged.
Bringing Wisconsin Cheese to life on social media meant more than just showcasing cheese, it meant creating an experience that Food Fanatics would actively engage with. Our strategy was built around high-quality storytelling, visually distinctive creative and a data-driven approach that made our content feel less like an ad and more like a must-see moment in their feeds.
In just eight weeks, we had 47.9 million impressions, 1.2 million completed video views, 238K engagements, 3K comments and 12K saves/shares, our content wasn’t just showing up in feeds, it was getting watched, shared and talked about like real, organic content.
Furthermore, we didn’t optimize for website traffic, but we had over 75K clicks to our homepage, proving that Food Fanatics weren’t just entertained, they were hungry to learn more.
This campaign wasn’t just about getting numbers, it was about sparking real excitement, and that’s exactly what happened.
“These ads are making me hungry! My biggest weakness is cheese! Love them all!”
“I'm loving these cheese posts. I wish there was a group where we could discuss different cheese and what goes well with them.”
“Eating a burrata Caprese as we speak. Belgioioso has become my absolute go to in terms of mozzarella cheese.”
“Here's a thought, what if someone made baseball cards for cheese in Wisconsin…”
“The aesthetic, beautiful. The information, on point. The meal suggestions, yum! More videos about cheese please!”
“Still years later...this is the best cheese in the world to me. From Wisconsin, I should know. Try the Merlot BellaVitano!”
Food Fanatics weren’t just engaging, they were asking for more. They wanted community spaces, deeper conversations, and even had creative ideas like Wisconsin Cheese baseball cards. That’s the kind of passion we set out to ignite.
This campaign successfully positioned Wisconsin cheeses as must-know for Food Fanatics, creating lifelong brand advocates for The State of Cheese.
