Daily Instagram Cooking Demonstrations in Japan Showcase U.S. Pork, Beef

Reaching Japanese consumers during a time when they had limited dining out options, USMEF encouraged them to cook more U.S. beef and pork at home through live cooking seminars on Instagram. Funded by National Pork Board and the Beef Checkoff Program, the demonstrations featured popular cooking celebrity Rika Yukimasa preparing U.S. beef and pork in her own kitchen.

As a bonus, the campaign – aptly titled “Learning American Meat Cooking by Simple English” – was a bilingual program in Japanese and English. USMEF’s purpose was to attract people who are interested in cooking and those interested in a simple English lesson, such as parents with school-aged children at home.

Yukimasa’s cooking demonstrations were distributed at 4 p.m. daily, as families began to think about the day’s dinner. These segments were recorded for USMEF Instagram TV (@americanmeatjapan) and made available as educational materials.

On social media, each demonstration gathered at least 1,000 “likes” and had between 10,000 and 15,000 viewers.

Rika Yukimasa, a popular cooking celebrity in Japan, prepares U.S. pork during one of her daily Instagram demonstrations that promoted the use of U.S. pork and beef for cooking at home