What if food could make the world a better place? It can. And the food to do it is ham. Lessing-Flynn partnered with the National Pork Board to launch Hams Across America, a charitable campaign that has Americans giving and going ham.

 

The Objective
Develop a pay-it-forward holiday campaign that encourages Americans – from pork producers to pork lovers – to come together through the irresistible power of ham. We envisioned a campaign that would inspire people to give a ham to friends and loved ones, or members of their community who may be in need. The vision was clear. So it was time to get to work.

 

The Solution
The Hams Across America campaign launched during the 2016 holiday season with the goal of uniting Americans through a shared love of ham. The strategy included developing an animated video introducing the campaign, social graphics and traditional PR tactics. Utilizing the #RealPigFarming social media channels allowed us to share stories of pig farmers making donations to a wide audience. In 2017, we increased the reach of the campaign with a large launch event and donation to the Iowa Food Bank, and followed this with daily stories of additional donations.

 

The Results
America went ham! In its first year, the #RealPigFarming social pages shared stories of 32,600 hams and pork product donations. We built on that success in the second year when more than 2.4 million pounds of pork were donated, and 39 stories of donations were shared on the #RealPigFarming social media channels. In all, posts had more than 200,000 impressions combined in just one month. That’s a lot of ham!