Midwest Dairy scores big with new partnership

How do you connect with thousands of passionate basketball fans during the Phillips 66 Big 12 Basketball Tournaments in Kansas City? With a powerful presence, a creative campaign and, of course, cheese. Midwest Dairy’s strategic partnership with the Big 12 Conference, an NCAA Division I intercollegiate athletics conference spanning 10 states and four time zones, brought dairy to life over 10 action-packed days inside the T-Mobile Center and at the Big 12 BLVD Fan Fest. This collaboration provided a dynamic platform to promote dairy’s nutritional and sustainable benefits to a diverse and engaged audience.

Inside the T-Mobile Center, dairy showed up to cheese the day with big visuals and delicious food.

Big 12 Eats menu

The arena featured “Big 12 Eats,” a school-inspired food menu celebrating all 16 Big 12 colleges, and was presented by Undeniably Dairy. Remarkably, 80% of the menu items included dairy. Fan favorites included the University of Kansas’ Big Jay’s Loaded Mac and Cheese and Iowa State University’s Chili Pork Walking Taco.

Fan engagement and visibility

The event drew a total ticketed attendance of 144,413 fans, offering numerous opportunities to engage them with fun and educational dairy content. Inside the arena, fans enjoyed interactive elements, including videoboard animations that encouraged “cheesy” dance moves and a “What’s your Big 12 Eats food personality?” quiz, which garnered 700 submissions. More than 10,000 3-point banners were distributed throughout the tournaments, each featuring a cheesy basketball icon and dairy sustainability message alongside Big 12 branding, reinforcing the connection between sports, dairy and responsible farming

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Television impact

Big 12 women’s basketball games averaged 291,500 viewers, marking a 26% increase from 2024. On the men’s side, games averaged 794,000 viewers — a 22% increase from the previous year — with the championship game alone drawing over 2.2 million viewers. Throughout the tournament, dairy messaging gained valuable exposure, with USDairy.com featured on-screen for about two minutes during televised coverage — significantly amplifying the reach of the campaign.

Farmer recognition

Local dairy farm families were honored on the court during each tournament’s quarterfinal games. Byron and Heidi Wells, and Dwight and Anita Rokey of Kansas were celebrated for their role in providing sustainably produced milk — an important ingredient used in Big 12 Eats menu offerings that helped connect fans to the farmers behind their food.

Dairy’s messages were amplified outside during the Big 12 BLVD Fan Fest.

Moo-ve and groove dairy disco

Leaning into the cheesy dance moves at the venue, Midwest Dairy hosted a silent disco featuring three music channels: legen-dairy rock ‘n’ roll, party disco, and an athlete-inspired hype mix. Approximately 7,500 visitors stopped by Fan Fest, danced to their favorite channel, and captured memories in the adjacent photo booth.

Student athlete influencer partnerships

Four student-athletes from Midwest Dairy’s region — Ayoka Lee of Kansas State, Conrad Hawley of Iowa State, Dug McDaniel of Kansas State and Shakeel Moore of the University of Kansas — supported the silent disco as “guest DJs.” They promoted their partnership through Instagram content, generating more than 393,000 impressions while spotlighting dairy’s presence and the Big 12 Eats menu.

Digital marketing reach

A geofencing and targeted digital ad campaign extended dairy messaging through mobile devices for 30 days, generating more than 762,000 impressions. The campaign met industry benchmarks for clickthrough rates and engagement, with many users clicking through to USDairy.com to learn more.

Impact measurement

Among Fan Fest attendees surveyed, 96% agreed the Dairy Disco improved their view of dairy as environmentally friendly. Visitors surveyed came from at least 14 states and represented all age groups, from youth to adults over 55.

Midwest Dairy’s first-ever partnership with an athletic conference has proven to be a high-impact opportunity to build trust and visibility for dairy in an energetic, family-friendly environment. As we evaluate the success of this initiative, we are excited about the potential for future involvement and how partnerships like this can continue to support our mission of growing consumer confidence in dairy.

Working on this project with the Big 12 Conference was an incredible experience, and I loved seeing thousands of fans engage with our message. It was powerful to witness how checkoff investment helped bring the farmer story to such a massive audience in my own backyard. I’m proud to have played a part in connecting college sports fans with the people and passion behind dairy.