• by Karl Greenberg , August 16, 2007

The San Clemente-based California Milk Processor Board (CMPB), which created the "Got Milk?" campaign, is breaking a new statewide promotional effort aimed at the Hispanic market. "Laugh Your Way to Stardom" is intended to promote the salubrious influence of milk on teeth.

Hispanic Californians are being asked to submit a 30-second video of their best laugh for a chance to be featured in the next "Toma Leche" (drink milk) commercial and win $1,000 cash and 100 gallons of milk.

The CMPB has recruited Latino entertainer and comedian Richard Villa, who will be performing in clubs across the state while encouraging Californians during his shows to enter the contest.

The contest will run through November in conjunction with the re-launch of CMPB's "Toma Leche" ad, which shows a fictitious island where everyone giggles about everything, even during unfortunate and unexpected situations. In the spot, natives attribute their great laughs and smiles to milk--the wonder tonic that strengthens teeth and prevents cavities. The ad is also on gotmilk.com.

Steve James, executive director of CMPB, says the consumer promotion will be promoted via PR, and of course, the comedian himself. "He will talk it up and make reference to it in his standup routine," he says, adding that impromptu video studios will be on-site at clubs where he's performing for consumers to do "audition" takes of their laughs.

James says the winner's laugh will be inserted into the island commercial. "This will use our existing Spanish-language commercial, which we will re-edit to include the winner."

James says Hispanic consumers are the right target for the campaign because they already consume more milk than the general market. "The Hispanic market over-indexes on milk consumption," he says. "We have a static marketing budget which over the past 14 years has lost its bang for the buck--so we have to go where we feel we will have the most impact, and general market and Hispanic are two major demos."

The "Got Milk" campaign is in its 14th year. The CMPB's Spanish-language campaign began in 1994, using the tagline "Familia, Amor y Leche" (Family, Love and Milk). The "Toma Leche" campaign replaced it in 2006, following a growing trend in Hispanic food advertising that uses wit and humor to reach audiences, per CMPB.

Meanwhile, the National Milk Processors Board (NMPB) this month launched its own effort, targeting school-age kids with "Body by Milk" and focusing on the health benefits of milk. It will include a music promotion this fall, where kids can use milk bar-codes to download music from bodybymilk.com. Next year, the NMPB will initiate an umbrella campaign, "Healthy Weight," promoting milk as part of a healthy-food program for losing weight.

The NMPB has also launched a consumer-content effort called "Think About Your Drink," a response to what it says is a declining consumption of milk as a dinner beverage (60% of children's dinners don't include milk). The effort lets families enter photos of themselves choosing milk or wearing the milk moustache made famous by the "Got Milk?" effort. Those who upload their photos to thinkaboutyourdrink.com vie for a chance to win a trip to Disney World, among other prizes.

Though the California board creates its own advertising, at least one issue in California has national relevance: James says tracking marketing success by sales is nearly impossible because the price of milk changes monthly--"and since price fluctuates, so does consumption, so it's hard to gauge whether advertising or price is affecting sales."