Oppy named as America’s Next Top Role Model
Winning the Industry Role Model award for a seventh year, Oppy was represented by Retail Solutions Specialist Garland Perkins at the Produce for Better Health Foundation (PBH) Consumer Connection Conference last month. She accepted the honor and for the first time, received recognition herself as an Excellence Awardee! PBH chose companies and individuals whose support of the Fruits & Veggies—More Matters brand to increase consumption in 2018 warranted special recognition.
Sitting as co-chair on the PBH consumer insights and research committee and board of trustees, Garland worked closely on PBH’s brand transformation to the Have a Plant campaign that received coverage in USA Today here. She helped by giving CEO Wendy Reinhardt Kapsak and her team direction on the transformation, which started with the question, how are consumers interacting with food and how can PBH be a thought leader and change agent in that?
PBH’s updated brand and campaign now reaches 2 million consumers per day, 1 million from their own network and 1 million gained from their influencer program, “Fruit and Vegetable Ambassadors in Action.” The team conducted extensive research about how consumers interact with food and the transformation of the brand reflects those findings. Garland said, “Oppy’s membership with PBH is really valuable. If the industry is interacting and influencing consumers, we need to be a participant in that. So kudos to Oppy for being a driver!”
The brand debuted at the conference, which Garland said, “Was a unique and intimate event with a lot of great networking opportunities among just 300 people. There were many health and nutrition experts, retail dieticians and influencers, as well as representatives from key US retailers taking part in discussions about how people make decisions about what they eat, how they shop for groceries and how we can influence that behavior to increase produce consumption.”
When asked how she felt about being recognized she said, “I feel like I got something I didn’t deserve. I genuinely love being involved in these kinds of things because I enjoy representing Oppy and participating in a dialogue that the industry needs. It’s nice to offer up our perspective and it makes me feel like we’re making tangible efforts to really improve things.”
Mirroring Wendy’s vision of this new initiative, Garland said, “This campaign is all about making sure the produce industry is leading the plant forward movement and not just riding on its coattails.” She continued, “I look forward to continue being a good committee member and sharing what PBH is working on with the industry into the future.”
