View all case studies Chobani
The best-selling Greek yogurt brand identifies reporters outside their typical reach with Muck Rack.
Learn how Chobani uses Muck Rack to:
- Curate targeted media lists for Chobani products and initiatives with Muck Rack’s journalist search engine
- Seamlessly collaborate on media relations efforts with fellow members of the Chobani communications team
- Stay on top of important industry news and trends with Muck Rack Alerts
Chobani
Maker of America's No. 1-selling Greek Yogurt brand and the second-largest yogurt manufacturer in the U.S., Chobani, LLC, was founded on the belief that people have great taste – they just need great options. Chobani produces high-quality authentic yogurt made with only natural, non-GMO ingredients from its plants in New Berlin, N.Y., Twin Falls, Idaho and South Victoria, Australia. Chobani is committed to using milk from regional farms and strengthening its surrounding local economies. Chobani gives a portion of its annual profits to charities worldwide through the company's charitable foundation. Chobani products are available nationwide in the U.S., Mexico and Australia, and in countries in Asia and Latin America.
John Kell
Media Lead
In Their Own Words: Chobani's Favorite Muck Rack Features
Search
As a former journalist turned PR professional, I view success as having a honed media list.
Targeted pitches are the way to go -- when I worked in journalism, about 80 percent of the pitches I received weren’t related to what I covered. That’s one of the main reasons I frequently use Muck Rack’s search capabilities to build targeted media lists for various stories we want to tell that span different audiences.
For example, Chobani’s founder gave a commencement speech at The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, so we developed a list of higher education reporters and editors to pitch for his appearance.
Because we don’t typically engage with reporters covering this beat, it was helpful to quickly and easily search on Muck Rack to find the right reporters for this story.
On a similar note, we recently made an announcement about the Chobani Foundation that involved updating a media list since this news targeted a different audience than a typical product announcement. We have a local list we use often, but wanted to make sure all those reporters were still covering business in the Central New York area.
Being able to easily sort and sift through the media outlets on Muck Rack to find the most relevant reporters or editors at the outlet is helpful. We’ve been very pleased with the quality of the product and find the information to be up-to-date and easy to use.
Alerts
Muck Rack Alerts have been incredibly useful -- we have several Alerts set up to track keywords including our company name, the category we compete in, key figures at Chobani and issue areas that are important to our brand.
Alerts especially help us stay in-the-know with issues we want to track. They help us find robust coverage to stay on point with important topics we need to be aware of in our industry space.
Recently, we were made aware of an important development that could have become a bigger issue if we hadn’t caught it through Alerts. Because we track certain keywords surrounding our ingredients and products, we noticed a media mention of some changes being made by one of our retail partners around product labeling. A letter the retailer had sent landed in the spam box of our team, but since we caught it on Alerts via a news story, we were able to notify our team and troubleshoot from there.
Muck Rack makes it easier to connect with journalists in a way that can successfully unite brands and media outlets.
—John Kell, Media Lead
Five Fast Questions
1. How has PR changed in the past several years? How has Muck Rack helped you keep up?
So much coverage is driven by what's happening on social media and what people are talking about there. That’s been a big shift and it has changed how companies have to think about what they pitch. PR professionals have to be more targeted than ever. Reporters cover really big beats these days and create more content than ever before, so a targeted pitch or media list is critical to make sure you’re not wasting people’s time. The more PR pros understand this, the more likely they’ll find success.
2. Besides media results, what other benefits have you received from Muck Rack?
One aspect of Muck Rack that has been extremely helpful is the ability to seamlessly collaborate and share information within our communications team. For example, my coworker who also handles media relations began working at Chobani before me, so when I came on board, I was able to hit the ground running and brief myself on which journalists we’ve worked with in the past through her Muck Rack activity. I was able to see media lists she had already created, and she could see new lists I crafted too.
I like that we can collaborate and share knowledge, while still operating in our own way using the tool at the same time. Muck Rack is more collaborative than other PR software I’ve used in the past.
3. What would your job be like if you didn’t have Muck Rack?
Oy. It would be more difficult! A lot of print magazines, for example, don’t update their mastheads for editorial staff or sometimes don’t share that type of information at all, so Muck Rack has been really helpful to find key folks we want to connect with.
4. How would you describe your experience with Muck Rack in three words?
Easy, intuitive and streamlined
5. What would you tell other companies considering using Muck Rack?
If you’re looking for a tool that is streamlined and intuitive that will help you connect with journalists and editors to tell your story, Muck Rack can help you with that.
We’ve explored other PR software companies, but we weren’t satisfied with the quality and accuracy of their data. Since using Muck Rack, we’ve been pleased with the quality of the product. Muck Rack’s information is up-to-date and it’s easy to use.
—John Kell, Media Lead
