2012 Media Impact Analysis prepared for US Mustard Company

Key Metrics and Findings

Total Publicity

Value:

$15,290,080

Favorability:

5.75 Tone Points

Total Impact Score:

65,785

• Quarter three saw a spike in volume, circulation and media values across all forms of media except broadcast. Despite lower overall circulation numbers, web hits accounted for a greater share of US Mustard’s media value than print media. Q3 also had the highest Impact Score of the quarter.

• The fourth quarter had the highest overall favorability due to many positive articles about the new US Mustard Museum opening in Davenport, IA.

• The US Mustard Open Golf Classic was responsible for increased US Mustard coverage in Q3; the month of August accounted for 20% of US Mustard’s total coverage for 2012.

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January February March April May June July August September October November December

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Month

US Mustard coverage begins its rise in July after a slight dip in June. Coverage is spurred by business journals covering

a statement by experts that the condiment industry will continue to

consolidate – the potential acquisition of US Mustard by A-1 Condiments is

mentioned alongside Berkshire Hathaway’s takeover of Heinz Ketchup.

Coverage over Time US Mustard coverage remained constant in the first half of 2012 then began to rise in July before peaking in August with 298 articles. Volume in September and October remained high before dropping in November and December.

Coverage of the US Mustard Open Golf Classic helped US

Mustard volume to spike in Aug.

Several articles about the economy causing

Americans to slash consumption of

condiments mentioned US Mustard Director of

Facilities Jill Hives. Articles got picked up in major and mid-size

publications around the US.

In Oct., articles about a worldwide mustard seed shortage featured several US Mustard personnel as

industry experts..

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50

100

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1 2 3 4

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Volume

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2,000,000

4,000,000

6,000,000

8,000,000

10,000,000

12,000,000

14,000,000

16,000,000

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Circulation

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500,000

1,000,000

1,500,000

2,000,000

2,500,000

1 2 3 4

US

Do

llars

Quarter

Media Values Print Web Broadcast

• Except for Q1, volume and media values were highest for internet hits.

• Print media had the highest readership of the three media types the first three quarters of 2012.

• Except for Q1 circulation, broadcast media was lowest in all categories.

• Q3 2012 saw a spike in volume, circulation and media values across all forms of media but broadcast. Despite lower overall circulation numbers, web hits accounted for a greater share of US Mustard’s media value.

Volume, Circulation, Media Value by Quarter and Type

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5,000

10,000

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25,000

30,000

Impact Score

Total Impact Scores for all Media

2012 Q1

2012 Q2

2012 Q3

2012 Q4

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2,000

4,000

6,000

8,000

10,000

12,000

14,000

16,000

18,000

PrintBroadcast

Internet

Total Impact Scores by Media Type

2012 Q1

2012 Q2

2012 Q3

2012 Q4

Impact Score Q3 media had the highest Impact of the quarter due to many favorable feature pieces in high-circulation outlets, as well as the quarter’s shear volume.

• Articles about Condiments Today choosing US Mustard as “America’s Favorite Mustard” saw pickup in Q3 in outlets such as yahoo.com, the Chicago Tribune, Reuters and CNBC. Such articles were lengthy, focused on US Mustard, and favorable, garnering large Impact Scores throughout July and August.

• Q4 Web hits also saw high Impact, driven by articles about US Mustard’s new biodegradable squeezable container. These articles garnered positive, feature coverage. The New York Times praised the new container, saying “Finally, someone in the condiment industry ‘gets it’” [Doug Gillard, 10/31/12].

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10.0

Average Tone Points by Quarter

2012 Average

2012: Q1

2012: Q2

2012: Q3

2012: Q4

Favorability

0500

1000

Print

Broadcast

Internet

Tone Points

Tone by Media Type

Neutral

Negative

Positive

Q4 Print had the highest overall favorability in the media set thanks to positive coverage of US Mustard’s sponsorship of Los Angeles’ End Hunger Marathon, which received pickup in several LA-area newspapers.

• Q3 broadcast had a negative overall average tone due to coverage of accusations against ex-US Mustard CEO Toby Sproutman for insider trading. The story received far less comparative pickup in print and internet coverage.

• Broadcast favorability rebounded in Q4 with favorable segments concerning US Mustard’s charitable endeavors, including End Hunger Marathon and for its being named the “condiment company of the year” [Seattle Times, 10/15/12].

• Overall, print articles drew nearly as much positive (210 Tone Points) as neutral coverage (234 Tone Points).

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Tier 1:National

Pubs

Tier 2: Mid-market Pubs Tier 3: Small

Market Pubs

Number of Placements by Tier

2012 Average

2012: Q1

2012: Q2

2012: Q3

2012: Q4

Placements by Publication Tier

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Total Placements

Print

Broadcast

Internet

• Q3 saw the highest media placements for all three types of media across the three different tiers (national, mid-market and small market publications). That quarter saw coverage of the Condiment Today award, US Mustard’s high stock performance, and the new factory in Dayton, OH, all of which received coverage across the three tiers.

• August’s coverage accounted for 20% of US Mustard articles alone, driven by the Condiment Today article. The award drew coverage in the small market publications where US Mustard has a presence in particular.

Message Penetration*

Print Broadcast Web Totals

% of

articles

Spokesperson

106 12 103 221 15

Personnel

73 13 198 284 20

Texture

- 1 5 6 0.4

Green Initiatives

9 14 63 86 6

Charitable Events

68 20 62 150 10

End Hunger

Marathon

25 - 159 184 13

Honey Mustard

3 - 16 19 1.3

Spicy Mustard

7 - 17 24 1.7

• Personnel was the top qualitative driver of 2012, appearing in 20% of all articles.

• Outside of Personnel or Spokesperson, the top driver for 2012 was the annual End Hunger Marathon (13%).

• Several of US Mustard’s green initiatives drew coverage at 6% of the data set, up 2 percentage points from 2011. The new biodegradable container as well as US Mustard’s new solar-powered factory in Dayton, OH were leading drivers of coverage in this area.

• For the first time since 2009, US Mustard’s Spicy variety garnered more media coverage than its Honey Mustard. Articles about spicy mustard were driven by pickup of a survey by Forbes about which sort of mustard was preferred by the US public.

* Multiple Messages can be found in the same article

Message Penetration*, cont.

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Print

Broadcast

Internet

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Type of Media

Personnel

Texture

Green Initiatives

Charitable Events

End Hunger Marathon

Honey Mustard

Spicy Mustard

Message Tone • Coverage for print trended positive overall.

• Most print coverage of US Mustard’s charitable events was positive.

There were three articles that complained about the event causing traffic delays in downtown Los Angeles [Los Angeles Times, 6/8/12].

• Spicy Mustard had five positive print articles. The articles were positive reviews of the new Spicy German variety, introduced in Q2.

• US Mustard Web coverage trended neutral-negative overall. • Similar to print coverage, most coverage of charitable events was

positive with a few articles complaining of traffic delays. • Broadcast had three negative hits for Spokesperson also due to the

coverage of the Toby Sproutman scandal in Q3.

• Broadcast coverage trended neutral overall. • Similar to print and broadcast coverage, negatively-toned articles

focused on the traffic jam and caused the charitible events driver articles to trend negative. The traffic jams drew more coverage in broadcast than in print or web.

Spokesperson

Personnel

Texture

Green Initiatives

Charitable Events

End Hunger…

Honey Mustard

Spicy Mustard

21

37

0

4

33

11

1

2

85

36

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5

32

14

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5

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0

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3

0

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0 Print Print Neutral

Print Positive

Print Negative

Spokesperson

Personnel

Texture

Green Initiatives

Charitable Events

End Hunger…

Honey Mustard

Spicy Mustard

54

134

5

55

42

111

15

16

47

60

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8

7

48

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1

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0

13

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0 Web Web Neutral

Web Positive

Web Negative

Spokesperson

Personnel

Texture

Green Initiatives

Charitable Events

End Hunger…

Honey Mustard

Spicy Mustard

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12

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NeutralBroadcast

PositiveBroadcast

Negative

Overall Metrics – Year-end 2012

Stories/Hits Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Total

Print 108 80 181 80 449

Broadcast 22 12 28 13 75

Internet 95 141 409 265 910

Total 225 233 618 358 1,434

Circulation-Impressions Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Total

Print 8,961,408 6,394,514 14,052,676 7,335,217 36,743,815

Broadcast 3,826,675 1,095,914 2,062,132 1,277,521 8,262,242

Internet 3,098,008 5,719,707 10,619,894 8,053,986 27,491,595

Total 15,886,091 13,210,135 26,734,702 16,666,724 72,497,652

Media Value Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Total

Print 1,091,754 462,896 1,312,549 302,117 $3,169,316

Broadcast 62,550 27,072 38,706 60,629 $188,958

Internet 711,923 2,085,972 2,349,198 1,864,990 $7,012,083

Total 1,866,227$ 2,575,940$ 3,700,453$ 2,227,736$ $10,370,357

Publicity

Value Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Total

Print 3,275,262$ 1,388,688$ 3,937,647$ 906,351$ 9,507,948$

Broadcast 187,651$ 81,217$ 116,118$ 181,887$ 566,873$

Internet 2,135,769$ 6,257,916$ 7,047,594$ 5,594,970$ 21,036,249$

Total 5,598,682$ 7,727,821$ 11,101,359$ 6,683,208$ 31,111,070$

2012

2012

2012

2012

Totals Averages Totals Averages Totals Averages Totals Averages

Volume 108 22 95 225 75

Tone 780 7.2 115 5.0 575 6.1 1,470 490

Key Message cal'c 385 4.0 90 4.1 375 4.0 850 283

Qual points/Key Message 77 0.8 18 0.82 75 0.80 170 57

Positioning Points 965 8.9 485 22 1,805 19 3,255 1,085

Publicity Points 2,115 19.6 525 24.0 1,590 16.7 4,230 1,410

Impact Score 4,245 39.3 1,215 55.2 4,345 45.7 9,805 3,268

Web All Media CombinedQuarter 1, 2012

Print Broadcast

Totals Averages Totals Averages Totals Averages Totals Averages

Volume 80 12 141 233 78

Tone 600 7.5 65 5.0 725 5.1 1,390 463

Key Message cal'c 250 3.0 55 4.6 605 4.3 910 303

Qual points/Key Messages 50 0.6 11 0.92 121 0.86 182 61

Positioning Points 750 9.4 210 17.50 2,610 18.50 3,570 1,190

Publicity Points 1,620 20.3 270 23.0 2,520 17.9 4,410 1,470

Impact Score 3,220 40.3 600 50.0 6,460 45.8 10,280 3,427

Print All Media CombinedWebBroadcastQuarter 2, 2012

Impact Score Metrics – Year-end 2012

Impact Score Metrics – Year-end 2012

Totals Averages Totals Averages Totals Averages Totals Averages

Volume 181 28 409 618 206

Tone 1,160 6.4 -200 -7.0 1,825 6.3 2,785 928

Key Message cal'c 385 3.0 95 5.0 1,110 2.7 1,590 530

Qual points/Key Messages 77 0.6 19 1.00 222 0.54 318 106

Positioning Points 3,365 18.6 740 26.40 8,155 19.90 12,260 4,087

Publicity Points 3,600 19.9 555 20.0 6,720 16.4 10,875 3,625

Impact Score 8,755 48.4 1,215 43.4 17,810 43.6 27,780 9,260

Broadcast Web All Media CombinedQuarter 3, 2012

Print

Totals Averages Totals Averages Totals Averages Totals Averages

Volume 80 13 265 358 119

Tone 655 8.2 90 7.0 1,660 6.3 2,405 802

Key Message cal'c 495 4.0 65 2.65 1,140 4.3 1,700 567

Qual points/Key Messages 99 0.8 13 0.53 228 0.86 340 113

Positioning Points 1,030 12.9 335 26 5,190 19.6 6,555 2,185

Publicity Points 1,650 20.6 285 22.0 4,410 16.6 6,345 2,115

Impact Score 3,585 44.8 750 57.7 12,460 46.8 16,795 5,598

Quarter 4, 2012Print Broadcast Web All Media Combined

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