Jennie-O is on a mission to prove that eating well shouldn’t have to come at the cost of taste. Since 2010, Jennie-O has been encouraging Americans to Make The Switch®. And to date, millions have given turkey a shot. In 2016, the company is celebrating this burgeoning movement with a five-city tour, designed to capture genuine reactions to the challenge: Can America’s favorites – burgers, tacos, meatballs and chili – taste just as great made with turkey?
The Make The Switch tour kicked off in Los Angeles and has made stops in Miami and Denver. From June 3-5, the tasting booth was the biggest venue of all — New York City, where thousands of people tasted Italian turkey meatballs, then had their authentic reactions captured in real time, shared on social media and showcased on a billboard in Times Square for all to see. The tour wraps up in Seattle.
“The tour comes as consumers are more interested in eating healthfully than in dieting,” said Registered Dietitian Annette Maggi, MS, RDN, LD, FAND. “According to the Content Marketing Institute, more than 50 percent of millennials indicate they want to eat healthier and are more concerned about the connection between daily eating habits and health than those in generations before them. JENNIE-O® turkey is 100 percent delicious with 65 percent less fat than beef.”
On the tour Jennie-O hosts a unique, live event experience featuring two iconic tasting booths. Inside each, participants taste a turkey burger, turkey taco, turkey meatball or turkey chili, and rate their reaction (e.g., “love,” “pleasantly surprised” or “meh”). Almost immediately, a personalized 15-second video of each tasting-booth experience is broadcast live on a gigantic billboard for everyone to see – as well as broadcast on YouTube and Jennie-O.com/MTS.
During the tour’s first stop in Los Angeles, people entered the tasting booth to give a California turkey burger a try. A whopping 87 percent of participants rated the experience “love.” At Miami’s SunFest, foodies enjoyed street-style turkey tacos, and 91 percent of samplers rated them “love.” In Denver, at the Cinco de Mayo festival, attendees entered the tasting booth to try a turkey chili verde, and 83 percent “loved” the turkey.
Following New York, the Make The Switch tour will conclude July 15-17 at Bite of Seattle. Thousands of attendees will have the opportunity to try a local Asian fusion favorite – lettuce wraps – made with JENNIE-O turkey.
