Smith Packing Inc., a broccoli grower-shipper based in Presque Isle, ME, and Hastings, FL, will feature its Alpha Vegetable campaign for broccoli at the New York Produce Show in early December.

Tara Smith Vighetti, a partner and director of marketing at the company, said the Alpha Vegetable campaign was the brainchild of the agency Victors & Spoils, which set out to make broccoli “cool” and “something healthy people want to eat.”

The cheeky campaign first pitted broccoli against the rock star status of superfood kale, with taglines such as, “Broccoli, now 43 percent less pretentious than kale.”

It certainly grabbed the attention of the produce industry, and in particular, broccoli marketers, according to Smith Vighetti, who said the campaign created a fair amount of buzz in the industry.

Alpha Vegetable signage and demo stations help capture consumers’ attention and make broccoli ‘cool.’“We picked up a bit on the broccoli vs. kale theme, but we decided to go easy because we didn’t want to go against a fellow vegetable too hard,” she said. “We decided to continue it with the focus on broccoli, and we worked with Victors & Spoils to create a new direction for the campaign, including the ‘Respect The Tree’ slogan.”

Smith Vighetti said her company’s passion for broccoli fueled their desire to invest money into a campaign that would lift the entire category.

“For a relatively small company like ours to invest our marketing dollars into something that will strongly grow the entire category, we really have to believe in the idea that a rising tide lifts all ships,” she said.

She said the rest of the broccoli industry has taken note of Smith Packing’s efforts, “but I still think a gap exists between grower-shippers being financially invested in reaching the end-user. Many are focusing their efforts on the retail community, and while that is effective, directing efforts to the end-user and consumer is what I think will grow the category.”

The Alpha Vegetable campaign received a huge boost from the Massachusetts-based retailer Market Basket, said Smith Vighetti, which featured promotional signage in its 75 locations and held sampling demos in nine stores.

“We did a two-week campaign in all 75 stores and gave out t-shirts and point-of-purchase information to help raise awareness,” she said. “I have to commend Market Basket on their willingness to help promote the Alpha Vegetable campaign. It really takes a believer to make this happen at the retail level, and they were great. It can be tough with much larger retailers, who are not as nimble, but this was a great success. We are still waiting for the numbers to come in to see what kind of boost in sales occurred, but I am confident it was successful and I anticipate that we’ll look to do it again next year.”

Smith Vighetti added that the Alpha Vegetable campaign “is really the kind of thing that is needed to cut through the clutter and capture the hearts of consumers.”

The Alpha Vegetable campaign will be featured at Smith Packing’s booth during the New York Produce Show Dec. 1-3 at the Jacob Javitz Center on Manhattan’s West Side. Smith Vighetti said the New York metropolitan area is a key area for Smith Packing’s client base, and she and other company officials look forward to meeting with its retail clients in the region during the show.

“The New York and mid-Atlantic regions are home to several of our important retail clients,” she said. “Our business originated in New England, but when we started to expand, New York was a big supporter of ours. So we are looking forward to connecting with our area retail clients and meeting them in their own backyard. We’d love to work with one or more retailers there on a Market Basket-type of promotion for the Alpha Vegetable campaign. It’s all about making broccoli cool in New York.”