Bring some friendly competition to your co-op this spring with Cheese Madness! If reinvigorating storewide promotions at the co-op this year is on your list of goals, we invite you to kick off this effort with Cheese Madness. This collaborative promotion engages marketing and cheese department staff, with fun ways for shoppers and staff to participate along the way.

Overview

Cheese Madness is a promotional event coinciding with the annual NCAA March Madness basketball tournament. Co-ops create a bracket of 16 cheeses and invite shoppers to fill out a blind bracket to guess which cheese will be most popular in a series of matchups. Once brackets have been collected, the tournament begins! Each day, two cheeses are matched up against one another. Shoppers may sample both cheeses to determine which they like best, then vote on their favorite cheese by casting a paper slip ballot OR voting via social media stories. Once votes are tallied, cheeses are either eliminated or advance through the bracket until a winner is announced. The winning cheese is put on sale to celebrate, and the shopper (or shoppers) who submitted a completely accurate bracket is awarded a prize — typically one pound of the winning cheese (or the final two), along with other gourmet goodies.

Support Materials

We’ve done a lot of the heavy lifting for you by creating a thorough implementation guide, designing graphics and templates, and drafting sample copy for social, web, etc., and staff communications.

Resources to help you implement Cheese Madness at your co-op include:

• Program information and implementation guide
• Informational memo for inclusion in logbooks, staff newsletter and other internal communication channels
• Sample copy for email and social media communications
• Print-ready templates
  • Blind bracket entry form, easily printed in-house
  • Bracket contest instructions
  • Voting slips
  • Customizable bracket posters, offered in a range of sizes
• Digital-use graphics
  • Email header
  • Customizable graphics for social media posts and stories

Find all of these materials at ncg.coop here.

The beginning of the NCAA tournament is two months away, so now is a great time to start talking with promotions staff at your co-op to determine how you might implement Cheese Madness this year.

For questions about Cheese Madness, contact NCG Marketing Services Manager Molly Baeverstad at molly.baeverstad@ncg.coop.