Category: Ag News

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This February, on the opening weekend of NASCAR, ahead of the Daytona 500, the third Beef. It’s What’s for Dinner. 300 NASCAR race will take place in Daytona Beach, Florida. Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster, Ron Hays, is visiting with the Director of Beef Marketing and Promotion at the Florida Beef Council, Deann Maples, about the Beef. It’s What’s for Dinner. 300 NASCAR race and how it came to fruition.

“Anytime you are looking for new ways to connect with consumers, this was an area that we had never played in before, but I certainly knew the sport and recognized these are our customers, and these are people who love beef,” Maples said.

The Beef. It’s What’s for Dinner. 300, Maples said, gives the Beef Council the opportunity to connect with consumers in the beef industry and show their appreciation for them. The race allows for the Beef. It’s What’s For Dinner. to be promoted on national television.

The effort of multiple state beef councils, Maples said, was put together in a short amount of time. The race was in the middle of February, she added, and the opportunity came about at the end of October.

“The race was the second or third week of February, so a short window of time to pull all of this together so quickly to find the support again,” Maples said.

Knowing it would be out of Florida’s budget, Maples said she went to the Federation of State Beef Councils and participated in several meetings to discuss why the race should be considered.

“I think we had involvement from about 13 states that first year,” Maples said. “Not that many came down, but they certainly supported us from afar, and then the Federation of State Beef Council’s support collectively as well, so by the time we got the contract signed, if you can believe this, we had 4 weeks until it was race time. So, to see the success we saw out of that in just that short four-week window was just amazing.”

A few of the first people Maples presented the idea to included the Vice President of Operations at Farm Data Services, Clay Burtrum, and the Executive Director of the Oklahoma Beef Council, Heather Buckmaster.

“The second call I made was actually to Clay Burtrum, because I knew he was a race fan,” Maples said. “The fan base in NASCAR has a brand loyalty, unlike any other sport. Reaching somebody who would know some of those dynamics as I knew them, I thought, was really important.”

Whether producers are a fan of NASCAR or not, Maples said the event has been a hit because producers enjoy seeing their brand attached to something.

“They have come out; they have helped us on the ground,” Maples said. “So yeah, we have seen great impressions, but we have also just had the contact on the ground that has just been awesome too.”

As for year three, Maples said there will be continued media and driver engagement.

“We have got a few new tricks up our sleeves that we are planning right now,” Maples said. “Hopefully, I’ll tell you next year about some numbers that will blow these out.”

Click the LISTEN BAR below to hear Ron Hays talking with Deann Maples about the 2023 Beef. It’s What’s For Dinner. 300

The Beef Buzz is a regular feature heard on radio stations around the region on the Radio Oklahoma Network and is a regular audio feature found on this website as well. Click on the LISTEN BAR below for today’s show and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.

Listen to Deanne Maples Talking About the Beef. It’s What’s For Dinner. 300

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