A television spot shows three kids sitting in a diner complaining about their beleaguered lives over glasses of cold milk.
One girl asks the boy in front of her about his “allowance negotiations.” He replies that his parents are lowballing him, then drains his glass and leaves in a huff.
The commercial is part of a new $16 million advertising campaign created by Huntington Beach ad agency Gallegos United for the San Clemente-based client California Milk Processor Board.
It debuted last week and is Gallegos’ first piece of work since it was named the organization’s agency of record in February.
Chief Executive John Gallegos said the agency wanted to shift from the board’s iconic “got milk?” campaign, which focused on a lack of milk consumption. The new statewide campaign looks instead at milk’s staying power, employing the slogan, “You Can Always Count on Milk.”
“It really is a beverage that has stood the test of time,” he said. “We found this great way to tap into the emotional equity that milk has—you can always count on it. We thought a really interesting way to play that out was to speak to the parents through the lens of the everyday lives of their kids.”
The spots feature children discussing everything from a tight schedule of extracurricular activities to cheek-pinching relatives in a way that disgruntled adults might describe the irritations of their lives to friends over glasses of cold beer.
It’s been 25 years since the famous “got milk?” campaign first spilled into the public’s consciousness, and while it’s one of the most recognized initiatives in advertising, a change was in order for the nonprofit funded by California milk processors and overseen by the state Department of Food and Agriculture.
Sales of fluid milk have declined year-over-year since 2013, and last year dropped 3.2%, according to a joint annual report by the department and the federal agriculture department. Gallegos said an increasingly dense product selection has given people many other drinking options, including nut milks.
Milk board Executive Director Steve James said it wanted to create a message for parents through the mouths of children.
“Households with children are the prime consumers of milk,” he said. “I know as a parent, if I see something that features children, I immediately think of my own, so it has a dual target of parents and their kids.”
First Sip
The milk board was a longtime client of San Francisco-based agency Goodby Silverstein & Partners, creators of the original “got milk?” campaign in 1993.
But it said it consolidated advertising under Gallegos because of California’s changing demographics and the influence of technology and media. Gallegos had worked with the milk board since 2005 but handled only the multicultural market, including Spanish-language ads.
The timing played out well, as the agency, formerly Grupo Gallegos, completed a company restructuring last year that expanded its scope to transform it into a communications group instead of one focusing on the Spanish-language market.
The agency employs 90 people and reported $24 million in revenue last year, putting it No. 15 on the Business Journal’s list of Orange County’s largest advertising agencies. Other clients include Chick-fil-A, Comcast, Foster Farms and Kia Motors North America.
Last year, Gallegos acquired New York-based digital agency Canvas and Los Angeles-based shop RL Public Relations & Marketing, which handled public relations for the milk board for 20 years, for undisclosed sums, and rebranded the companies as Canvas United and Rox United.
The agencies were brought under newly created parent company United Collective, which includes Gallegos, business-planning and consultancy firm Poly United, and post-production studio Luna United.
John, who serves as chief executive of all of the firms, said the company’s restructuring likely gave the milk board reassurance it could handle all of the organization’s advertising needs.
“It’s an awesome vote of confidence that milk saw us to steward it and take it forward,” he said. “It also helps us be more efficient [and] bring a more unified approach.”
He said Canvas handled the website and search-engine optimization as Gallegos worked on advertising and social strategy, and Rox oversaw public relations.
Store to Home
Gallegos said the new campaign is one of the most comprehensive marketing strategies the agency has implemented. It will cover digital, social, retail and broadcast media.
Television spots will run on English- and Spanish-language networks, including Univision and Telemundo, in more than 20 key markets throughout the state, such as San Francisco, Bakersfield, Los Angeles and San Diego.
Advertising will also be translated into other languages, including Chinese, Korean and Tagalog.
It relaunched the milk board website, and Gallegos said more than 1,300 retail activations are in the works, such as special events and marketing materials posted at grocery chains, including Albertsons, Safeway, Northgate, H mart and 99 Ranch Market.
A customer-loyalty program is also being developed—a first for the milk board and scheduled to be introduced later this year.
Gallegos said it’s important to be culturally attuned and that the milk board needed to look at the market through a different lens.
“California has changed in the 25 years since ‘got milk’ launched,” he said. “You have the … aging boomer, and then you have this emerging market that’s growing within it, which is far more diverse ethnically [and] in gender orientation, so you have to address both.”
James of the milk board added that while it’s still relying on the brand equity of its trademarked “got milk?” slogan, it was time to take a modern approach.
“We’re a multicultural state,” he said. “We wanted to make sure that this campaign resonated universally in California with all the different ethnic and demographic groups that we have here.”
