“Little Treasures of Europe”, NEA PASEGES’S (Greek Confederation of Unions of Agricultural Cooperatives) program, had as its aim the promotion of Greek co-op PDO & PGI products, as well as the raising awareness for the concept of co-ops.
All the communication and informational actions took place in the Greek marketplace, in order to firstly incentivise the Greek audience, and secondly turn Greek consumers into ambassadors of our products for all the tourists that will be visiting our country for the three-year long duration of the program.
More specifically, there were educational trips organised in geographical locations and co-ops that produce PDO & PGI products, where several groups of journalists were informed about their primary production and specific conditions of cultivation. The journalists visited Amfilochia, Kalavryta, Nemea, Aigio, Kalamata, Lasithi, Rethymno, Santorini and Naxos. This way, these opinion leaders were able to come into contact with the products and form a well-rounded opinion, in order to be able to then communicate the products’ benefits to their target audience.
The PDO & PGI products that participated in the informational and promotional products were: PDO feta cheese, PDO graviera cheese from Naxos and Crete, PDO xinomyzithra from Crete, olive oil from Mylopotamos and Siteia of the Lasithi regional unit of Crete, PDO olive oil from Kalamata, PDO Corinthian raisin Vostitsa, PGI potato from Naxos, PDO Assyrtiko wine from Santorini, PDO fava (yellow split peas) from Santorini, PDO tomataki (cherry tomatoes) from Santorini, and last but not least, PDO Agiorgitiko wine from Nemea.
For the accomplishment of the program’s goals, press conferences, tastings, as well as a digital press campaign, were successfully organised and executed, with the participation of journalists, influencers and opinion leaders of the food and tourism industry. Thus, the public got informed on the values that co-ops advocate, the special character of PDO & PGI products, and the overall awareness over the badges of quality these products carry, was raised.
The program was created partly to educate the target audience regarding the PDO & PGI quality badges, since it was discovered that the wider public did not have a correctly formed opinion regarding these badges, which was resulting in a lack of awareness towards the badges and consequently the products themselves.
Nonetheless, the integral relationship between the PDO & PGI products and the co-ops contributed to the shaping of the consumers’ opinion regarding the real value of these products.
To conclude, it is worth mentioning that NEA PASEGES proudly supported, with its actions, all of its members, proving its faith in its producers and providing them with the opportunity to showcase their products through the press and online campaign, as well as all the events that took place throughout the duration of the program.
