Starcom rallies media partners to help Lion Dairy & Drinks raise $1 million so far for drought relief

Starcom Melbourne has helped rally a number of media partners to pledge their support and donate air time and space to help Lion Dairy & Drinks raise $1 million so far to help dairy farmers impacted by drought in NSW, South East Queensland and Northern Victoria.

Lion Dairy & Drinks’ “Be True Blue Farmer Drought Fund” launched last month via a temporary 10 cent-per-litre wholesale price increase for all Dairy Farmers and Pura 1L, 2L and 3L fresh white milk sold to participating retail outlets across NSW, Queensland and Victoria until 31 January 2019.

The campaign features open letters to the Australian public from dairy farmers in South East Queensland, NSW and Northern Victoria who supply Lion Dairy & Drinks, explaining first-hand the impact of the drought and the difference that purchasing Pura and Dairy Farmers branded fresh milk from selected retailers is making for them.

Starcom has so far secured support from media partners in TV, radio, out-of-home, digital and press.

Says Darryn Wallace, marketing and innovation director, Lion Dairy & Drinks: “Every day of every week of every month, regardless of the conditions, our dairy farmers are out working to bring us fresh milk so that we can provide this essential product to all Australian households. So in what is a 1-in-100 year drought across parts of Australia we wanted to provide all households across Victoria, NSW and Queensland the opportunity to support our farmers with our ‘Be True Blue Drought Fund’.

“Since our launch in early October we have been overwhelmed with the support from our media partners to bring this campaign to life and after reaching our first major milestone of paying our drought-impacted dairy farmers in NSW, Northern Victoria and South East Queensland a total sum of more than $1m on behalf of the business, our brands and farmers, I wanted to say thank you for your support. You have made a real difference and we appreciate your help, generosity and commitment.”

Says Sam Harris, client services director, Starcom: “We are really proud to be able to work with Darryn and the broader Lion Dairy & Drinks team on such a vital initiative.  With the generous support of great media partners, we’ve been able to build and bring to life a four-month media plan that so far has seen more than $1 million in media value running across the Eastern Seaboard.  The support from media partners has been essential and we look forward to this continuing over the remainder of the campaign as we raise more money for our farmers.”

The campaign will run until the end of January 2019 and Starcom expects more media partners to pledge their support.