The U.S. Potato Board will have Don Ladhoff leading their retail efforts for their Domestic Marketing Program.
He will provide key input to strategy and guide the tactical execution of the program, with the goal of increasing demand for potatoes in the retail environment.
“I’m pleased Don has joined our team,” said Kathleen Triou, USPB’s Vice President, Domestic Marketing. “He brings considerable experience and enthusiasm to the position, and he’ll be ready to contribute from day one.”
Ladhoff was most recently the President of BrandForce, a full-service marketing agency he founded in 2008 that assisted clients including Butterball, Chiquita and T-Mobile. Prior to BrandForce, he was the Vice President of Client Solutions at Seismicom from 2006-2008, working with brands such as Nestle, Fresh Express and Challenge Dairy. From 2002 to 2006, Ladhoff was a Vice President of Account Services with MARS Advertising, developing shopper marketing programs for clients including Clorox, ConAgra Foods, Dr Pepper/Snapple and Procter & Gamble.
I probably would have overdosed on a healthy product if I’d attended Potato Expo 2010. It’s hard to say no to chips/dip or a nicely baked potato with the extras. It would be fun to blog. Maybe someday. Anyway, it sounds like the potato business is doing okay.
Nearly 1,200 people attended POTATO EXPO 2010, along with a trade show that was completely sold out. The second annual POTATO EXPO kicked off Monday, January 4, 2010 with an “Opening Luau Reception” on the tradeshow floor at the Loews Royal Pacific Resort at Universal Studios in Orlando, FL. The record setting attendance included representatives from all across North America and from all sectors of the potato industry. Attendees from New Zealand, Germany, the United Kingdom, Norway, the Netherlands, Mexico, Korea, Japan and Ireland were also present.
One of the general session speakers was J.R. Simplot Company President and CEO Bill Whitacre who spoke on “The Future of the Potato.” He said:
“Over the next decade, our industry will continue to change, and that will mean the potato industry will have additional opportunities,” Whitacre said. “Many of these will come from technological advancements. We need to embrace these technologies and recognize the capabilities and possibilities these will bring to the future of food production.”
The U.S. Potato Board got some recognition for balancing traditional and digital media recently. Their target?
She’s called “Power Mom.” “Momfluential.” “Chief Purchasing Officer.” Even “Mogul Mom.” She is the United States Potato Board (USPB) Domestic Marketing program’s primary target: women, 25-54 with kids younger than 18 living at home. She makes at least 80 percent of the decisions regarding her household’s spending, and she doesn’t make those decisions passively.
The USPB presented a case study at the “M2Moms Annual Conference”, a professional development conference for marketers.
Meredith Myers, USPB Public Relations Manager, was part of an interactive panel in October, along with the Vice President of Marketing for iRobot and Director of Consumer Public Relations for Hallmark Cards. These professionals came together and discussed, to a packed room, how their unique approaches directly reach “momfluentials” and are generating measurable results.
Baking a potato is not a difficult thing to do unless you’ve never done it before and have no idea how. There’s help for consumers now from the U.S. Potato Board.
Potato classics go convenient and digital. The United States Potato Board (USPB) recently launched a campaign to help remove the time-barrier between busy moms and potatoes. It revolves around a new collection of Quick & Healthy Potato Recipes, and the news is reaching consumers reading traditional food pages and socially surfing the web.
The six most popular online searches for potato recipes—baked, mashed, fries, soups, salads and casseroles—were updated to be “Quick & Healthy” and enhanced with several flavor variations, for a total of 24 new potato recipes to please every palate. Additionally, six, one-minute educational videos were created. This package was introduced on September 18 through a multi- media on-line news release, so in addition to an article touting the quick-and-healthy benefits of meals with potatoes, there are links to recipe pages on www.potatogoodness.com, photos to download, and links to the videos on the Potato Goodness YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/user/PotatoGoodness.
The U.S. Potato Board held a “Hot Potato Ideas” contest and culinary students were rewarded for their innovative recipes like this Cheesy Southwestern Potato Crisps one shown in the photo. During my pheasant hunt our cook made us some of the best potato pancakes I’ve ever eaten. Perhaps we should get her to enter next time.
Creative ideas and innovation bring excitement to menus and inspire the restaurant patrons who enjoy them. This was the motivation behind the United States Potato Board’s (USPB’s) “Hot Potato Ideas” contest, which rewarded culinary students for their innovative potato recipes in one of three categories: Ethnic, Healthy and New Classics.
Twenty-two students from the Culinary Institute of America, Hyde Park, NY, campus entered the contest, so deciding upon the top three entries was a challenge. Nonetheless, here is a snapshot of the winning potato recipes:
Cheesy Southwestern Potato Crisps, a Latin-inspired recipe with fresh jalapeño-cilantro pesto and cheese enveloped in crisp shredded potatoes, captured the Ethnic Category and overall Grand Prize in the Potato Innovation Recipe Contest. This fresh and flavorful recipe was created by William “Trey” Smith. The USPB awarded Smith a trip to the Culinary Institute of America’s Worlds of Flavors® conference in St. Helena, CA, (Napa Valley) taking place November 12-14, 2009.(more…)
Commodity Classic took place in Anaheim, CA. You'll find all of Chuck, Cindy and Joanna's photos here.
Happy Ag Week
It's time to thank our farmers and ranchers for all their hard work to feed us.
In this week's program I interview Linda Tank, CHS, Inc., who is Chair of the Agriculture Council of America, the group coordinating National Ag Day. Learn more about their activities, especially this week in Washington, DC.
The U.S. Potato Board will have Don Ladhoff leading their retail efforts for their Domestic Marketing Program.
The 
The 
It's time to thank our farmers and ranchers for all their hard work to feed us.
