Beef industry campaign scoops major marketing award

© 2012 The Chartered Institute of Marketing. All rights reserved.

The Scottish beef industry won a major marketing award for the campaign that helped turn Scotch Beef PGI into London’s biggest meat brand.

Quality Meat Scotland’s ‘Great Quality of Life, Great Quality of Taste’ campaign, which was developed with The Union and co-financed by the European Union, and has also been used in Scotland, won the ‘Public Sector - Other services’ prize in the Marketing Excellence Awards, organised by the Chartered Institute of Marketing.

In deciding the award, the judges noted that the campaign was: “An impressive example of the power of effective marketing to increase sales and support market entry through creating consumer awareness and understanding even in difficult times.”

The Marketing Excellence Awards is the preeminent accolade in the marketing sector. Laurent Vernet and Suzie Carlaw from the QMS marketing team accepted the award on behalf of the Scottish industry at the ceremony at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London last night.

Laurent Vernet, Head of Marketing for QMS said: “The award was based on the strategy, implementation and results of the marketing campaign, and it’s a great achievement for the Scottish beef industry to have won such a prestigious accolade.

“The industry’s continued investment in high quality campaigns that have had strong results in a highly competitive market is something that every cattle farmer in Scotland can be rightly proud of.

“We needed to reinvigorate the Scotch Beef PGI brand on a modest budget, and through listening to consumers we were able to make minor adaptions to the existing creative to better reflect what they wanted. The new campaign saw Scotch Beef become the best known red meat brand in London, brand awareness reached its highest ever level, and sales increased 30% in late 2010.”

The core target for the campaign was women aged 35+ who are the main food-shopper of the family. The campaign was based around point-of-sale posters, commuter Underground posters, quality newspaper magazines and online adverts on recipe sites such as Delia Online and BBC Good Food.

QMS Marketing Controller, Suzie Carlaw explained: “The campaign had three aspects. It featured cattle in a natural environment with a farmer highlighting animal welfare and had an enticing cooked steak shot. The copy focused on the high quality taste and animal welfare offered by our assurance schemes.

“Working with Mediacom we picked outdoor formats which allowed for a longer dwell time, such as 48-sheet London Underground cross-tracks and magazine inserts to enable us to highlight brand heritage and bring the story to life.”

Between 2009 and 2010 brand awareness in London increased from 29% to 40%, the highest ever recorded in that market.

Suzie said: “Listening to consumers meant that our existing creative could be adapted in a cost effective way, which ultimately resulted in a stronger and more relevant consumer brand.”

© 2012 The Chartered Institute of Marketing. All rights reserved.