Early last year, the National Fisheries Institute’s Shrimp Council launched a shrimp-branding campaign via Facebook.
Twelve months later, the “Eat Shrimp” Facebook page has generated nearly 21,000 “likes,” surpassing the 20,000-fan mark thanks to a push from its recent “Shrimp & Pasta Party” in partnership with Dreamfields Healthy Pasta.
The virtual party allows fans to participate in an interactive recipe contest, a shrimp and pasta personality quiz and share their love for the America’s most-consumed seafood item.
So far, more than 1,000 recipes spotlighting shrimp and pasta have been submitted for the contest. Closing on 7 April, the contest features a “drag n’ drop” functionality that allows fans to select ingredients from a “virtual pantry” and create their own dish. Prizes include USD 200 and USD 50 gift cards to the grocery store of choice.
The Eat Shrimp page had just 13,000 fans when the party launched on Ash Wednesday (22 February), the first day of Lent. Two weeks later, the page had another 7,000-plus fans, thanks to the party.
“I applaud the members of NFI’s Shrimp Council for embracing social media. Our Facebook campaign, along with traditional public relations, gives us the opportunity to talk about shrimp to editors, bloggers — and directly to our growing base of Facebook fans,” said Judy Dashiell, NFI’s senior VP. “Every company who benefits from U.S. consumers eating more shrimp should join The Shrimp Council. We have a great message and we have a lot more work to do.”
