By Jessica Domel
Multimedia Reporter
While Texans shelter at home during the coronavirus pandemic, the Texas Beef Council is reaching out to consumers to tout the benefits of cooking with beef.
“The coronavirus has really thrown a wrench into a lot of the things that we had planned coming up for the spring and summer for Beef Loving Texans,” Rachel Chou, director of Consumer Marketing for the Texas Beef Council, told the Texas Farm Bureau Radio Network. “We’re a very flexible and nimble group, and we’ve been able to adjust some of our content to not only adapt, but thrive during this time.”
The Beef Loving Texans team used its metrics and insight from social media to learn what consumers were looking for during the pandemic.
“Entertainment and online consumption has gone through the roof,” Chou said. “We’re keeping a close eye on that and adjusting all of our content to reflect with is needed right now.”
That content, according to Chou, includes recipes that will feed many people for several meals.
“Of course, everyone is cooking at home right now,” Chou said. “We’re really switching any of our content that was about restaurants or fancier meals to ground beef and pot roast.”
Around Easter, the Beef Council shared a recipe for pot roast that became one of their most successful pieces of content they’ve shared this year.
“It’s really interesting to see what people are looking for, but not only that, so much of the search has been revolved around food, recipes and comfort dishes that people can have and make them feel good while they’re feeling trapped at home,” Chou said.
The Beef Council continues to promote beef on behalf of Texas ranchers.
“We’re not stopping our marketing and our pursuit of increasing the demand for beef,” Chou said. “We’re just adapting to what is within pop culture and what is being needed and consumed at this point.”
The Beef Council is also offering more ground beef recipes.
“We know that people are watching a lot of YouTube content and a lot of videos,” Chou said. “So, we’re offering how-to-cook videos for consumers.”
The popular video series BBQuest is still available on Hulu, as well.
“We know that people are consuming that content,” Chou said. “While people cannot go out to restaurants, they can still order take out from a lot of barbecue restaurants that are featured in our BBQuest series.”
The Beef Council is also working on its All Plates of Life advertising campaign.
“That campaign around beef’s versatility speaks to how many different ways and how suitable beef is for whatever dish you have and whatever beef you have in your refrigerator or freezer,” Chou said. “You can make something delicious, and it serves your family’s needs.”
The Beef Council’s recipes, videos and other content is available on beeflovingtexans.com.
Information on the state beef checkoff is available on texasbeefcheckoff.com.