USApple Launches Campaign Supporting Education Causes
September 27, 2015 
Wendy Brannen
Everyone remembers the beginning of the alphabet chart — where our favorite fruit has long been the iconic start of every child’s education. This fall, we want to build on that longstanding association between apples and education with a program that will not only encourage consumers to eat apples and apple products, but also contribute to the well-being of kids in the classroom.
To accomplish this, the USApple Education team launched Apples for Education: Buy an Apple, Help a Student. The campaign will support select education initiatives across the U.S. through both national awareness and monetary donations when people buy an apple, apple product, or partner pairing (like Marzetti caramel dip and apples, for instance). T. Marzetti Company, Johnsonville Sausage, Roth Cheese of Wisconsin, and KIND Snacks are all program partners this year.
Campaigns supporting a cause have been shown to instill greater trust in consumer brands and products, so this positive connection with educating our youth can drive goodwill, trust, and consumption of U.S. apples and related products. In short, U.S.-grown apples and the industry that produces them support both healthy bodies and healthy minds, and that’s something that consumers can appreciate.
Over the past few weeks, we have conducted direct outreach to schools to drum up program support and held a call for nominations to find projects that are geographically dispersed throughout the apple-growing states and our program partner states; that provide a mix of inner city, suburban, and rural locations; and that cover a wide range of education needs. This is a great opportunity for state and regional associations, as well as USApple member-companies, to get involved by encouraging support of the causes geographically near and sentimentally dear to them.
New Fall Campaign
Apples for Education replaces the successful AppletizeMe campaign we have run the past three years. That award-winning campaign earned our industry a massive 103-million-plus consumer and media impressions — our way in the public relations world of gauging exactly how many people could have realistically been exposed to or directly participated in the program.
A new Apples4Ed.com website will serve as our campaign hub this fall, featuring profiles and images of nominated causes, USApple and program partner info, apple facts and health information, and of course, apple recipes and pairings. New York City-based chef Dave Martin, a former Top Chef television show contestant and fan favorite developed recipes and pairings for the campaign.
We will share selected project profiles both on Apples4Ed.com and via social media, encouraging people to vote for the cause they most support. They’ll then vote by uploading a photo showing they have purchased and are enjoying an apple, apple product, and/or apple pairing, then tagging/selecting the classroom cause for which they wish to cast their vote.
At the end of the campaign, the cause with the most votes will receive the top-tier donation. All other causes will receive the remaining percentages of donations based on votes. Meantime, to encourage participation, we will conduct weekly online drawings in which those who snap and share their apple pictures can win an Apple store gift card and the opportunity to donate $100 directly to their cause of choice.
Increasing apple awareness while supporting education — sounds like a smart idea, right?
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