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By Minda Smiley, Reporter

August 8, 2016 | 3 min read

The California Milk Processor Board (CMPB), the organization behind the long-running ‘Got Milk?’ campaign, is hoping to battle sluggish dairy milk sales in the state with a new campaign aimed at tweens involved in extreme sports.

Called #BonesLoveMilk, the board’s latest effort stems from research out of its agency of record Grupo Gallegos that found that pre-teens are more likely to ditch milk in favor of trendier drinks like flavored water than other age groups.

“Kids drink milk at home because mom puts it on the table or dad tells them it’s good for them,” said Stephen James, executive director at CMPB, “but then they get out into the ‘real world’ where they get peer pressured into drinking energy drinks and flavored waters and things that they think are cool, so we sort of lose them until they realize once they reach adulthood that milk really is the nutrient powerhouse that their parents told them it was.”

To try and get tweens to keep on drinking milk throughout their teenage years, CMPB has spent the past few months visiting skateboarding events to spread its #BonesLoveMilk message by handing out custom skateboards, hosting trick contests and giving out samples. The hope is that pre-teens and teens will start viewing milk as a healthy drink that can help them strengthen their bones instead of a beverage that’s doled out to them by their parents.

On June 21, which is international Go Skateboarding Day, the brand traveled to three LA skate parks to spread the word with pro skateboarders including Tommy Sandoval and Garrett Hill on board. Last month, CMPB built a #BonesLoveMilk pop-up store at Huntington Beach during the US Open of Surfing in hopes of reaching both skateboarders and surfers hanging out at the annual event.

“This is an audience that is particularly prone to falling off of a skateboard and having a lot of stress put on their bodies and their bones, so we thought this campaign was a really good harmonization of the message of milk being good for them, which you can’t come right out and say because this is a demographic that really can smell advertising from a mile away,” said James.

According to Grupo Gallegos, which is based in Huntington Beach, the campaign has received more than 700,000 views on social media through Facebook, Snapchat & Instagram and more than 84,000 engagements.

While CMPB has been documenting its travels on social media and is encouraging skateboarders to share their own videos using the hashtag #BonesLoveMilk, founder and chief executive of Grupo Gallegos John Gallegos said that having a physical presence at events where pre-teens are likely to be is an important aspect of the campaign since it allows the brand to interact with its target demographic during a time where they’re likely not thinking about milk.

“The further you are away from the refrigerator, the less likely you are to be consuming milk, per se,” said Gallegos. “This is how we can stay relevant in a conversation when [tweens] are away from their refrigerator.”

Gallegos also noted that the campaign is likely to extend to other extreme sports, like motocross and snowboarding, in the future.

“I think it’s a wonderful platform,” he said. “It really does fit the California lifestyle mentality.”

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