Organising dairy promotion events: A best practice guide

One way of doing this is to organise events in your local city or town centre.

Here's a simple guide on how to get the best from any such event, with thanks to Rachel Gillbanks from the NFU’s North East office for sharing her expertise.

The Main Message

Start planning and gaining support a long time prior to the event – this will ensure there is more media interest and also more support on the day itself.

The Venue

Retail venues need national sign off - local stores will only give the go-ahead if they have the go-ahead from their Head Office - so any plan to use retailers would need clearance nationally in the first instance.

City centres are much more difficult to secure as many ask for a significant sum of money for the pitch. For example, an event in Newcastle or Leeds would cost up to £1,500 just for the pitch. Smaller city and town centres may charge less or offer it for free. 

A good lead-in time is needed to secure sites as a detailed application is needed, backed up with a risk assessment and

public liability insurance cover.

Most cities and towns now have a pedestrianised centre which means any organised event has to run all day. This means arriving early (in most cases being set up and cars off site by 8am) and not being able to leave and clear up until after the shops close.

Timing

This is an important point to consider as you will want to make the most impact possible.

Consider school holidays or bank holidays as this is when you’re most likely to see families and more footfall in town centres. One problem with organising promotional events on these days is that staff and dairy farmers themselves may have planned to be away on the same day/s.

Again, ensuring the plan is in place early should help with this, as well as securing the city centre venues, as they also will get booked up by other organisations.

The Event

Samples
Contact local dairies for samples - most will donate free of charge in return for some publicity. Ensure sufficient space to store dairy products prior to the event. On the day itself, as food is being served, it is essential to have at least one person with a food hygiene certificate. There will also need to be plans for event refrigeration, possibly by using facilities on loan from local dairies or by purchasing your own that can then be used for other events.

Animals
Having live animals at the event will always draw in more interest but can be problematic. Check with the city/town council early. If you do plan to use animals there are obvious things to consider:

• A special movement licence that negates five day standstill
• Proper robust pen plus bedding that includes plastic sheeting to protect pavement and facilitate removal of straw back to the farm
• Parking arrangements for trailer as too long for most city centre car parks
• Hand washing facilities (essential if you are combining animals with food sampling).

Member/Farmer Involvement

This is sometimes one of the trickiest challenges. To many farmers standing in town centres talking to the public is well out of their comfort zone. From experience farmers that do get involved are rewarded by an almost unfailingly supportive general public.

The Press

Inevitably there will be a lot of press interest, so it is important to be ready for this and have farmers ready to speak and be interviewed. It is also vital that someone is present toco-ordinate social and consumer media during the event.