Get your party hats ready: Midan is turning 20 this month!
Think back to when you were 20 years old. Pretty naïve, right? In human years, “20” is still early days; the runway feels very long. But in business, making it 20 years is a MILESTONE, especially for a small business… a niche marketing agency… that specializes in meat. As the first agency of its kind, Midan was a unicorn. The odds of succeeding weren’t in our favor.
That makes us especially delighted to celebrate being around for two decades. A brief look back reveals that what initially helped shape Midan has also given it staying power.
All In on Meat
Michael Uetz and Danette Amstein were each establishing their own careers in the meat industry when they joined forces in 2004 to form what became Midan Marketing. Initially, their new agency served both meat and non-meat clients. But the partners soon learned that being a general agency with all sorts of clients just wasn’t very interesting; all their passion for marketing was tied up in the meat business and they wanted to be able to go deeper there. So, they very intentionally opted to focus only on meat clients and fleshed out a meat-centric “why” to guide their path: Ensure meat is consumers’ protein of choice today, tomorrow and beyond.
Michael and Danette were ranch and farm kids; their interest in helping ensure that all the players in the supply chain get the highest dollar for their products was personal. While the agency’s charge was straightforward – create better marketing to sell more meat – they carved out a distinctive approach to meat marketing centered around industry education and anchored in consumer data. Keeping our eye on the meat consumer has been Midan’s North Star.
Meat Consumers = Our Bread and Butter
From the start, research has been the bedrock of much of our work. Our thinking has always been, “If you want to know what consumers are up to, ask them.” We’ve surveyed meat eaters on everything from the power of branding in the meat case to what claims they gravitate to on beef and pork packages.
We’re especially proud of our signature Meat Consumer Segmentation research, originally conducted in 2016, that generated the first industry-wide meat consumer segments. Since then, we’ve revisited the study twice, with our 3.0 version conducted in 2023 revealing five brand-new consumer segments that reflect today’s ever-evolving meat-eating population.
Industry Partnerships
Keeping our pulse on what meat consumers are thinking, doing and eating has given us the street cred to advise many clients over the years about how to reach their specific targets in the right place, at the right time, with the right message. Whether it’s an industry giant like Tyson Foods or a smaller specialty operation like Dean & Peeler Meatworks, we have been honored to call many meat companies our partners. We’ve had the opportunity to help develop big new brands, create videos with big impact, launch B2B and B2C websites with big goals — all in the name of helping the industry keep meat on the plate.
Thought Leadership
As Midan has grown, we’ve become more intentional about thought leadership, tapping our in-house experts to generate content that gives the industry a jump on what’s ahead. Along with our own proprietary research, we stay on top of trends and comb secondary research to glean insights to share via our blog and speaking engagements. If you are a regular reader of the Midan blog or heard Michael or Danette speak, we hope you’ve learned a nugget or two that helped you make a better business decision or look smarter in the boardroom when it comes to topics like AI, sustainability or meat consumer trends.
No Bed of Roses
No one ever promised working in the meat industry would be easy. Major curveballs over the years disrupted business and created unprecedented marketing challenges, such as conducting monthly research during COVID-19 to better understand how the pandemic impacted retail meat shopping or combatting negative claims from upstart alt-meat companies bad-mouthing traditional proteins. Every curve ball was ultimately a learning curve that helped our team become more resilient and better prepared for the next upheaval.
The #Meatfam
There’s no doubt that Midan’s greatest asset is its team members, affectionately coined #meatfam several years ago. Michael and Danette very purposefully placed a high value on company culture early on, holding yearly meetings focused on industry education (there have been many visits to ranches, animal ag universities and meat plants) and team bonding (there have been many wonderful team meals – with meat-only entrées served, of course). As a result of those gatherings, we have a strong team that knows a lot about animal protein production and cares a lot about each other.
Looking Ahead
Looking back has helped generate real excitement about what the next chapter might hold for Midan. We are reminded our passion for the meat industry has not waned and our “why” from our earliest days is intact – we are still firmly committed to ensuring meat is consumers’ protein of choice. This keen sense of purpose, ingrained in Michael and Danette and fully embraced by the team, helped get us here and will serve us well as we continue to be “Champions for the Value of Meat” moving forward.
As Midan turns 20 this October, we acknowledge with gratitude those who supported us on this amazing, two-decade journey: our meat industry clients across the supply chain – packer/processors, retailers, foodservice operators, D2C companies, industry associations, farmers and ranchers, allied companies – and of course, the Midan #meatfam.
Coming Soon: a retrospective video plus a webpage highlighting anniversary wishes from our industry partners.