An essential ingredient of any successful advertisement is a great hook, and pork’s tantalizing new ads are snapping consumers to attention.

“Our food looks so delicious that it draws people in according to our research,” says Laurie Bever, director of consumer advertising for the Pork Checkoff. “The Pork Checkoff’s latest print, online and television ads are designed to get people thinking about the possibilities of pork this fall.”

The magic that is pork is captured in 15-second and 30-second national television ads that aired through mid-October on a variety of cable channels, including Food Network, Cooking Channel, ABC Family, Lifetime Movie and many more. The ads featured an array of pork cuts and delicious recipes, including roasts, ribs, chops and pulled pork, in a variety of settings.

“Consumers like how these television ads show pork prepared in different ways, which inspires them to try new meal options with pork,” says Bever, who notes that the Checkoff is producing new television spots to run in 2013.

Print, Online Ads Entice and Inspire 
New meal options debuted in the Pork Checkoff’s third- quarter print advertisements, which featured Pulled Pork Tostadas with Slaw and Chipotle Cream in the September issues of Better Homes & Gardens, Cooking Light, Kraft Food & Family, Midwest Living, Redbook, Southern Living and other popular magazines.

Pork is also showing up in the October issues of Good Housekeeping, Reader's Digest and Woman’s Day with an ad featuring Simply Saucy Bacon-Wrapped Pork Loin. 

New for 2012, the Pork Checkoff has added QR codes to magazine ads to track how many consumers use their smart phones to scan the codes to view videos at PorkBeInspired.com. Popular clips include how-to tips on using marinades, rubs and glazes, ideas for cooking with pulled pork, and ways to entertain with pork.

“Magazines are still a good way for us to connect with consumers, because people spend time with their favorite magazines clipping recipes, finding a Web site and scanning QR codes for information,” Bever says. “Online, consumers are looking for immediate information, so print and online advertising nicely complement each other.”

Checkoff Dollars Work Hard 
The Pork Checkoff’s culinary videos are also embedded in ads at high-traffic sites like Hulu.com.  “People come to Hulu, ABC.com and recipe sites to watch videos online. We’ve had great success with consumers watching our video banner ads,” Bever says.

In addition, the Pork Checkoff’s online sponsorships at AllRecipes.com, BHG.com (Better Homes and Gardens), Cooking.com, Food.com, FoodNetwork.com and other sites offer an effective way to measure results. 

“People are actively looking for information and recipes on these sites, and we get an instant measure of our Checkoff advertising investment,” Bever says. “We can see how many people are coming from these sites to www.PorkBeInspired.com to print recipes, watch videos and access other pork information.”

The Pork Checkoff uses a methodical system for measuring results from all its advertising investments, from tracking click-through rates online to researching consumers’ response to the creative components and messages of print and television ads.

“We make Checkoff dollars work hard,” Bever says. “We’re trying to influence a large group of people through our advertising, and we strive to maximize the Checkoff investment with every ad placement we run.”