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W I N T E R 2 0 1 8 | 11 the flavour, texture and nutri on of everyday dishes. In the fall of 2016, addi onal consumer research explored the health and sustainability messaging that would resonate best with consumers and help expand their understanding of pulses. The Half-Cup Habit The Half-Cup Habit campaign represents the second stage of the pulse industry's consumer promo on strategy. The campaign aims to deepen consumers' understanding of pulse benefits beyond protein and fibre, while maintaining an emphasis on taste and simplicity. Consumers who sign up for the Half-Cup Habit on pulses.org receive monthly newsle ers containing simple recipes with enhanced nutri onal informa on, ingredient lists and cooking ps. Those who visit pulses.org can also access informa on about where to find pulses, how to cook them, and how to store them. The Half-Cup Habit campaign is being promoted to consumers through social media, online adver sements on popular health and wellness websites, and partnerships with bloggers and consumer influencers. Ar cles referencing pulses and their benefits have also appeared in online publica ons such as Buzzfeed, Women's Health, NPR and the Huffington Post. In the fall of 2017, die ans also promoted pulses and the Half-Cup Habit to consumers on Canadian television. Since its launch on June 21, over 35,000 consumers have taken the Half-Cup Habit and over 861,000 have visited www.pulses. org. The Half-Cup Habit will con nue through the first half of 2018. Measuring Success Achieving a notable growth in demand for pulses in North America will likely take several years. Prior to beginning consumer promo on ac vi es, Pulse Canada measured pulse consump on in North America in both retail and food service and in a number of food product categories. This has provided the industry with a benchmark that will help track progress in increasing demand to meet the 2025 goal. The pulse industry is also conduc ng regular consumer research to assess changes in consumers' awareness of and a tudes toward pulses as a shorter-term indicator of success. Research demonstrates that consumer awareness of each individual pulse type is very high in both the US and Canada, but recogni on of the term "pulses" as a food category is significantly lower. In the US for example, 17% of consumers on average can accurately iden fy beans, peas, chickpeas and len ls as "pulses". The pulse industry will con nue to measure changes in awareness of pulses and their benefits over me to determine whether promo onal ac vi es are having an impact. Early research results suggest that consumers are showing an increased in interest in pulses. In a January 2017 survey, 35% of millennial consumers in the US and 28% of millennial consumers in Canada indicated they believed their pulse consump on would increase. In a September 2017 survey of Half-Cup Habit par cipants, 86% of respondents indicated they are ea ng more pulses since taking the challenge and 99% indicated that they plan to con nue ea ng pulses a er comple ng the challenge. 64% of respondents no ced an increase in sa ety and energy and 44% reported improved regularity as a result of taking the challenge. Pulse Canada is commissioning an independent review of consumer promo on and consumer research ac vi es completed to date. The review is an cipated to be completed in early 2018. The results of this work will provide added insight into the effec veness of the industry's promo onal ac vi es as well as recommenda ons on the future direc on of work in this area. "Articles referencing pulses and their benefits have also appeared in online publications such as Buzzfeed, Women's Health, NPR and the Huffington Post." P U L S E C R O P N E W S

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