AHDB Beef Lamb’s ‘Jetpack Journey Home’ advertisement, which was first aired last year, returns to the screen to air nationally in November. It will promote lamb and beef mini-roasts as a quick, easy and versatile midweek meal and is being supported by extensive digital and press advertising and PR campaign as part of a wider £1.6 million consumer marketing campaign to promote lamb and beef consumption.
The five-week multi-channel campaign – featuring 10 and 30-second versions of the advertisements – is scheduled to run from the week commencing November 2 on ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and Sky. It will again feature the ‘#miniroast. Why wait ‘til Sunday?’ message, underlining that consumers can enjoy lamb and beef roasts as a quick, simple and nutritious midweek meal option.
The ‘Why wait ‘til Sunday?’ campaign is part of AHDB Beef Lamb’s marketing programme aimed at showcasing Quality Standard Mark (QSM) and Red Tractor lamb and beef to British consumers. Other activity undertaken by AHDB Beef Lamb includes the student society-style ‘LambSoc’ social media campaign to raise the profile of lamb as an exciting meal option and the benefits of cooking with it. Aimed at 18 to 25-year-olds, LambSoc has attracted more than 19,000 people through its Facebook channel, along with further followers on Twitter and YouTube.
To support Red Tractor week, AHDB Beef Lamb have worked in partnership with Red Tractor Assurance to produce a digital marketing campaign to support quality lamb. The ‘Max and Maggie’ campaign will run across a number of sites targeted at mums age 25-45 and across social media. The digital ads feature Max and his sheep dog Maggie who are campaigning for mums to cook family meals with lamb to help keep his dream of being a sheep farmer alive. All ads and social activity will carry #maxloveslamb as a sign off.
The organisation has also recently launched the €7.7 million consumer lamb campaign, ‘Lamb. Tasty Easy Fun’ – a co-funded campaign with the European Union, Interbev in France and Bord Bia, in Ireland – to promote lamb over the next three years and address the decline in consumption.
Jane Ritchie-Smith, AHDB Beef Lamb head of consumer marketing, said: “The issue of lamb price, in particular, is well documented at the moment and we have been working extremely hard to promote home-grown product.
“The national TV advertising has always been part of our cohesive consumer marketing work to stimulate demand for Red Tractor and Quality Standard lamb and beef. This will dovetail with the peak supply of domestic lamb in the autumn.
“While the TV and press advertising will focus on mini-roast as a midweek option, through the Max and Maggie campaign we will look at attracting people to cook with lamb by using other easy-cook cuts like mince, dice and steaks for tasty family meals. We want to change consumer perceptions that lamb is just for the Sunday roast.
“Our approach is part of a strategic promotional campaign aimed at stimulating demand, but also illustrates how AHDB Beef Lamb is supporting the supply chain. By developing new cuts we are adding value to the carcase, while encouraging consumers to cook with products they may otherwise not have considered, to help address the issue of falling consumption.”