Pitch Produce to Any Media Platform

Creating true omni-channel shopper engagement in the produce department requires touchpoints along the entire path-to-purchase, and these touchpoints have changed over the past three years. Join RDBA CEO, Phil Lempert and his guest Bonnie Taub-Dix, registered dietitian, media pro, and California Strawberry Commission spokesperson, as they discuss how working with media outlets has changed and how to effectively partner to drive produce sales.

Transcript

Phil: 0:14

Welcome to Lost in the Supermarket. I'm your host, Phil Lempert. Today's episode, brought to you by the California Strawberries, takes a look at how retail dieticians can successfully pitch produce to all media platforms. The California Strawberry Commission represents more than 300 strawberry farmers, shippers and processors all working together to advance strawberry farming for the future of our land and our people. My guest is my friend and colleague, Bonnie Tab owner of B T D Nutrition Consultants and the award-winning author of Read It Before You Eat It, taking you from label to table and the creator of better than dieting.com. Bonnie is a media personality, media trainer for wellness professionals, spokesperson, motivational speaker, journalist and corporate and brand consultant. She's a contributor for today, US News and World Report Insider and Live Strong, and a past spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, and the recipient of their very prestigious media excellence award. Let's get started. Bonnie, welcome to Lost in the Supermarket.

Bonnie: 1:26

Hey, Phil. So nice to be here.

Phil: 1:28

So Bonnie, if we take a look over the past two and a half years with the Pandemic especially, how has doing media interviews changed for you and and RDS across the nation?

Bonnie: 1:41

Well, you know, I have had my own business for years, so working from home was not something that was unusual for me. But work from home really took on a different turn, when really you couldn't work from anywhere else. And for my one-to-one clients, it really was not as big a deal. We did Zoom calls and FaceTime or phone calls, but when it came to media appearances, that's where the change was the most challenging. One example that really comes to mind is I needed to do an S M T, that's a satellite media tour, and this is where you stay in one place for five hours and you work with 40, maybe, maybe 45 TV stations at all during that period of time. And usually I'm in a studio, I have a thing in my ear where they're talking to me. I have a makeup person, a, a food stylist, a whole camera crew producer. Well, this time it was just me in my kitchen and the team that was trying to talk to me through my computer. So having the proper lighting, having all of that, which I know we'll talk more about, but it was really a challenge. But we wound up having 45 million impressions from that one session. So it really told me that you can do more than you think you could do at home. And, and for the travel plans that I had, including travel plans that I had with California strawberries, we just pivoted and did radio media tours. We did interviews by phone. It really was very interesting to see what you actually can do on your own. It doesn't mean in person is not really better, but it is amazing what you can accomplish these days with technology.

Phil: 3:29

So from a technological standpoint, you know, I get it. What about the emotional standpoint? You know, when, you know, you alluded to the fact that normally you're in a studio, you have this whole crew there, you have everybody doing it, then it becomes just you. What kind of stress,if you would, does that put on you and really what effect does that have long-term having to do everything from home?

Bonnie: 3:58

You know, it's funny because the stress came from technology more than from content and confidence. I knew I knew my stuff, but I had no clue whether somebody was going to ring my bell. Wwhen I had a dog, I was afraid my dog would bark. I was afraid I would lose the internet. So I had to go out and buy equipment to make me feel better to know that I was covered. I needed an ethernet cable to make sure that I was covered directly to get the feed, and I wouldn't lose a feed. I was, I was more nervous about that kind of stuff than worrying about how am I going to make this happen from my standpoint. And in some respects, it actually was so much better because I could get dressed from shoulders to waist and wear my slippers. I don't have shoes on now. You know, so that was all kind of good actually.

Phil: 4:50

So, you know, you alluded you need an ethernet cable, you to do stuff. What kind of equipment do you really need at home to do an interview for network TV or a podcast or online?

Bonnie: 5:06

Yep. Well, I always had some sort of lighting, a countertop lighting because I work with brands that I do recipe development for them. I take a ton of pictures for my social media platforms, but I had to get a ring light. And again, you don't have to spend a lot of money for this equipment, but a ring light and make sure that if you're getting a ring light, that it's on a very strong tripod because I have bought several that are so weak, it was really not a good idea. So a strong tripod, a light that has a contraption to hold your phone or your iPad so that you could be hands free. And this actually really comes in handy when you're in the supermarket because you could set up your phone on the tripod with a ring light if you have a feed, obviously for a power. And then you could reach for things on shelves. You could do, do food demos. So for that, it really is very helpful. For podcasts, I got a Yeti mic. I have a lavalier mic that I could wear so that if I wanted to walk around a little bit, I could walk around and still have good sound. But you know, what really wound up working best was my computer and maybe a pair of earbuds, although if I was doing a TV segment, I don't really like the way that headphones look. So just like this, all that I have now is my Mac computer and us. So it really doesn't have to be anything fancy to really make a segment work. And, you know, something that I wanted to offer today to viewers is that I, after this all happened, the whole pandemic, I put together a guidebook basically of all the kind of equipment that I really like and the prices and where to get them. And I'd like to offer it to viewers that are here today. I use it as a bonus towards my course about working with media. But I will give it to anybody that just goes to Instagram. You could follow me@BTDmedia and just put a note in the comments that says RDBA or send me a direct message that says RDBA, and I'll be happy to send you my guidebook.

Phil: 7:11

That's great. That's a great offer. Thank you for doing that. Let's talk about pitching the media itself. You know, we've got obviously local media, we've got national media. Are TV interviews harder to get now than they were pre pandemic? And how can you leverage that local media to really push today, next level to get on the Today Show or Good Morning America or any of the other national programs?

Bonnie: 7:43

TV is much harder to get now than ever. You know, when I was first doing media, I know this will date me, but there was only traditional media. There was tv, radio, magazines and newspapers. There was no internet. So I was trained to do TV and to do those kinds of interviews. And media, media today, the same as then is looking for people to, that they could connect with. The problem is money. A lot of the stations wanna be paid for the segments that you're doing, unless it is a public service type of segment. And for that, I think that dieticians should not underestimate the power of local media and local media for TV obviously would be wonderful to bring people to your store, but TV is not the do all and end all of media. If you were able to get a column in a local newspaper or a story, connect with a local reporter and get a story in a local newspaper, this could really drive traffic to your store. But you have to make these things happen when you pitch. So I'll use strawberries as an example. Strawberry season goes from the, the spring until late fall. And it is something that will drive people to the store because who doesn't love strawberries? So during that season, you could talk about strawberry recipes, you could talk about smoothies, you could talk about summer barbecues. But once the colder weather comes, strawberries may not be as plentiful in stores. But that's where you could talk about cold and flu season because strawberries contribute so much vitamin C to the diet in such a delicious way. You could talk about frozen strawberries and what to look for on the package because you could make smoothies and have them at your fingertips in your freezer. They're easy to store, they may even be less expensive. So we have to make our own stories. You can't wait for someone to come and reach out to you. And I know that in terms of the pandemic, that a lot of supermarkets are not having as many in-store demos. A lot of people are still reluctant to do that kind of thing, but that doesn't mean you can't invite media to come to your store for an event.

Phil: 9:53

So let's, let's keep our focus on the media for a moment. What I've noticed in the past, probably two, two and a half years is a lot of the media turning to RDS to really help viewers save money to choose better-for-you foods, to your point, you know, strawberries with vitamin C, building up your immunity. But what I've also noticed in, in watching a lot of these, the media is in control. The media is trying to move the rd to a different story. So what are your tips to help rds keep the media focused on track to, to cover the issues that are really important, instead of just focusing on some of those headlines about, you know, food inflation, the price of food going up, you know, what do you do to make sure that you're in control of that interview versus turning it over to an anchor?

Bonnie: 10:51

Simply put, I dance. And what does that mean? The most important dance step is the pivot. And here's what I mean by pivot. If you, and if you wanna know the truth about pivoting, watch political shows because they do it all the time. Here's what a pivot is. I'm not sure about that, but here's what I can tell you. And then you just change the topic. You don't really answer the question and you get across the magnetic media messages that you wanna say. So you need to bridge from the topic that they're trying to get you to speak about, which very often is inflammatory, to push somebody's buttons to a topic that you wanna speak about. And this isn't easy, but it's something that works every time. And I remember that when, when I did some work with USA today, they wanted me to do videos, and it was videos, you know, how do you make breakfast for a dollar a day? Well, you know, it can be done, but then you could talk about other ways that you could create a healthy breakfast. And before you know it, you're on a different topic.

Phil: 11:56

So, you know, I get it. It's easy to recognize that that's, you know, what you're at. But you know, you're sitting across the desk from a, you know, national media celebrity if you would that, you know, people get a little nervous when you're in that situation. What can they do to practice to be able to pivot before they're sitting down, you know, next to, you know, Katie Couric or Brian Gumbel or George Stephanopoulos? How do you prepare for that?

Bonnie: 12:34

So, you know, I've been doing interviews for more than 30 years and I still get nervous. And I don't know if the nervousness is something that is something I wish I didn't have or if it actually makes me feel even more on top of my game and excited. But one of the things that I do is I tried to research the five worst questions that I could possibly be asked so that this way I have those questions under my belt, and I feel like at least if they ask me those, I'll be taken care of. You know, even in this interview today, I didn't know if you would go rogue and start asking me questions that I had no idea about. But I think that once you're prepared, that's the key is being prepared. And when I do a media segment, I write down maybe 50 things that I want to say, and then I'll turn that into 25 and then I'll turn that into 12. And I do, I keep doing that until I get to three, three messages that I have to say no matter what. And you know, if you're a dietician representing your supermarket or you're representing a particular brand, you might even be p being paid to make sure that you get those messages across. So you want to be sure of that. And that's where the pivoting comes in. That's where the bridging comes in. You want to keep bringing them back to your message. Don't let it intimidate you just because they're a star. You are the expert, you are the expert, you have the knowledge and you know what something else, you wouldn't be there unless they thought that you were capable of answering their questions.

Phil: 14:10

Great tip. So, you know, RD's get a lot of questions thrown at them in real time. To your point, you might have someone like me that throws you a curve ball that you're not expecting. How do you stay on top of those latest trends that are relevant to, to shoppers? I mean, when we take a look at our supermarket world and the world of health and wellness and nutrition, it is huge. So what do you do personally in order to stay on top of all those trends? So no matter what the question is, you can answer it.

Bonnie: 14:48

Well, here's what I do. I read a lot of newsletters, news Digest, I think RDBA, and you do such a fabulous job with your newsletter. I also keep files, detailed files. So if I see a story that I think is an interesting story about something that I like to talk about or something that I'm really shaky about talking about that I wanna learn more about, I keep files on that. And when I do a media interview, I do somewhere between two to four top tier media interviews a week. So these stories that are not new, even though they may be, oh, the new trends of 2023, just look at them. They're not usually new. They're usually the same old, same old. I don't even know how many Thanksgiving interviews I've done or back to school stories or cold and flu season stories. So I keep files on these things and I could go back with new research just to update those files, but a lot of the same sound bites are still going to work. So that's what I do. I think my, my filing system is really very important for me and I think it's really helpful to start that. And, you know, if you have good story ideas, another thing that you should do is keep a story idea, file for your stores ar articles, you know, that are in your store items that you think you'd like to read about or write about. Even if you only come up with titles to stories, I have so many titles of stories and no stories. So this really could be helpful because when you have a moment of creativity that strikes, write it down because you don't know when that'll happen. Again,

Phil: 16:25

Let's move outside, let's move to the field. Obviously what we've seen over the past, probably five or six years, lot more stories about farming, ranching, you know, farm to table type of stories. I'm sure you've been, you know, thrown in the middle of a strawberry field with a crew. What advice do you have for those people who are filming in the field or on a farm? What are some of the pitfalls that you've gotta avoid in that environment?

Bonnie: 16:57

I, whether it's a farm or a factory, I love being involved in those immersions, very often called the talent that's there. But really the talent comes from the farmers that are there and for the produce itself, because it is really just so incredible to see. And when mother nature doesn't get in the way like a rainstorm or something like that, you could actually be so successful because people really want to see probably more than ever where their food comes from. And they're so amazed by seeing how farmers actually care so much about their land and they wanna preserve their land. Then again, you know, I'll use strawberries as an example because something really fascinated me about strawberry growers is that more than 65% of strawberry growers are of Latino descent and many of them got started out on their farms as pickers, or they drove trucks and they actually moved up to then become farm owners. And I think that this is the story and people love stories. They love being taken on a journey. And when you go on a journey of how a food goes from the a seedling to the farm to how it gets to your store and then gets to your home, and then what do you do with it when you wanna put it on your table? I love the stories about growers to know that they live on many of the farms with their families, with their pets and you know, food safety comes up a lot. Well what about their situation? They wouldn't put themselves in these situations if it was something that was unsafe. And many of these farms are multi-generational. So I just think that when a dietician is working with media in the farm, tell a story because the story is what will be most captivating.

Phil: 18:54

So when we look at today, uou know, end of 2022, beginning of 2023, what are some of the stories that the meter calling you about that you would also anticipate that a lot of the rds are gonna get phone calls about as well?

Bonnie: 19:12

Well, I get a lot of stories about food labels because of my book. Um, and that is anywhere from how to read a label to whether we should read a label or whether it makes sense. And now with this potential new healthy definition, by the FDA, I think we're going to b e hearing a lot more about food labels and what we should read and what we should believe. But also there are a lot of questions about online shopping. This came up a lot during the pandemic because a lot of people that never shopped online wanted to shop online because they didn't want to go to stores as often, but that could be confusing. And as it relates to food label, I'm not such a huge fan of online shopping because a s i f people go to stores and don't read labels that often when they shop online, they look for their favorite brands, they buy it. I mean, how many times are they flipping the package over online to see what's in their food? It's really not that often at all. I think that we'll hear more stories about sustainability and packaging and also fad diets. Fad diets will always be popular. So which diet will be popular this year? I don't know. I could tell you that it's probably some sort of version of something we've heard a million times before. I think that supermarket dieticians need to be on top of these diets because then keto products that are in their store or gluten free or lactose free, those are going to be showing up on the shelves that go with the feds. One topic that I think is very interesting and controversial that I have been being a, been asked more about lately is weight loss and weight loss are two words that really have not gone together very well for the past few years because people were not talking about it much. We were talking more about body kindness and about intuitive eating. And I don't think that all of those things are really so far apart from each other, but I have been getting a lot more questions about weight loss now. So I think that's something that we may wind up going back to, but we won't go back to it the same way that we did before. So that will be very interesting to see.

Phil: 21:23

So Bonnie, as always, thank you for your insights. your tips are invaluable and thank you for all the work that you do every single day. And most of all, thanks for joining us today on Lost in the Supermarket.

Bonnie: 21:39

Well, thank you so much. It was a pleasure to join you and if anyone wants any more recipes or information about strawberries, you can just reach out and follow at ca strawberries online or on social media. And if you do snag an interview to go into the field or to talk about the produce aisle and you need to connect with a strawberry grower, just let us know and we'd be happy to connect you.

Phil: 22:02

Thank you.