Good Results From Domestic Beef Campaign
AUSTRALIA - Initial results of Meat & Livestock Australia's $5 million domestic beef marketing campaign were outlined today, as the red meat industry taskforce for domestic marketing gathered to discuss results, activities and budgets for 2011-12.MLA General Manager Marketing, Glen Feist, told the taskforce that the 'Nothing beats Beef' campaign launched in October 2010 is successfully building the foundations to revive the emotional bond between Australians and beef.
"The results show the campaign has been a great first step in entrenching the new 'Nothing beats Beef' message, reminding Australians to put beef on the barbie over summer," said Mr Feist.
The two commercials - one comically dramatising the lengths people will go to ensure they got the beef meal at a wedding; and the other reminding consumers that nothing beats beef on the barbecue - were screened from 14 October and reached over 14.6 million Australians in metro and regional areas.
"The 'Beef Wedding' ad in particular proved to be a crowd pleaser," said Mr Feist. "Research showed that 84 per cent of viewers agreed the commercial positioned beef as 'the most desirable meat'."
Roy Morgan research revealed a rise in the purchase of beef and beef barbecue cuts over the promotional period. Over 51 million serves of beef and veal were purchased on average per week during the months of October and November - up six per cent from 48 million in the same period in 2009.
"While many factors can impact on domestic sales, it was pleasing to see that the cuts featured in the campaign increased in popularity during the research period," said Mr Feist.
Purchase of prime steak servings rose 12 per cent (from 10.75m to 12.03m/week) and beef sausage servings were up 14 per cent from the previous year (from 7.47m to 8.5m/week).
"Retailers really got behind the campaign with their own promotions," said Mr Feist, "which certainly would have played a significant role in boosting the awareness and sales of beef during this period.
"Although 66 per cent of butchers took part in the campaign, this was short of MLA's target figure of 75 per cent, so this is an area we really want to focus on in future campaigns to grow consumer demand for beef even further.
"Industry representatives at today's taskforce recognise that real marketing success requires ongoing, long-term investment. The 'Nothing beats Beef' campaign is only in its infancy yet the overall results suggest it is on target to deliver significant returns for years to come."
The taskforce also endorsed the next planned phase of the 'Nothing beats Beef" campaign, which will include tactical advertising to capitalise on the Royal Wedding in April and another burst of TV commercials, promotional and PR activities in June-July to secure beef's place on the winter menu.
TheCattleSite News Desk