QMS gets active with Spring ad campaign

Enjoying health and wellbeing continues to be core to the next advertising campaign from the red meat levy board, Quality Meat Scotland (QMS), as it collaborates with outdoorsy influencers and celebrates easy, nutritious cooking at home.

In its 2021 Spring campaign, QMS is building on last year’s ‘Make It’ activity to inspire consumers to include red meat as part of a healthy balanced diet whether cooking at home, eating al fresco or fuelling an active lifestyle. Starting at the end of March and set to reach 69% of all adults in Scotland, the six-week campaign will feature billboards outside Tesco, Asda and Coop, advertising on TV, podcasts and across social media.

QMS Marketing & Communications Director, Lesley Cameron said:

“Eating for health and wellbeing has become a top priority for consumers over the last 12 months and, with food service remaining largely closed over the next few weeks, most will still be cooking every meal at home. The focus of our Spring campaign is to continue to inspire consumers to choose Scotch Beef PGI, Scotch Lamb PGI and Specially Selected Pork when they are cooking for themselves, and, ultimately, to instil this as a habit.”

The campaign reinforces the nutritional benefits of naturally reared red meat as a source of protein and vitamins, including B12 which alleviates fatigue while positioning Scotch Beef, Scotch Lamb and Specially Selected pork as versatile and a solution for quick and easy mid-week meals. It reassures consumers that Scotch meat is high quality, high welfare, and produced from start to finish in Scotland.

QMS will be expanding on the increased appreciation of red meat seen in steady sales growth in the last 12 months, with recent data from Kantar showing a 30% increase in unprocessed red meat sales value in Scotland in January, despite it being Veganuary. The campaign also reflects accelerating consumer trends including getting active in the outdoors, reducing food waste and outdoor entertaining.

“Across all social channels, QMS is working with influencers who enjoy active, outdoors lifestyles such as climbing, walking and wild swimming to inspire consumers with cooking from scratch,” said Mrs Cameron "We will also be sharing recipes to ‘Make & Take’ for picnics as the weather improves and restrictions ease.”

Billboards will be hosted at major retailers where key purchasing decisions happen. These have been designed to drive shoppers to choose Scotch for its quality, taste and ease of cooking, as well as to think about ‘cook once, eat twice’.

Seasonal activity, including Easter, will be used to drive sales. An Easter Scotch Lamb meal box will be promoted in partnership with Thyme 2 Dine to encourage consumers to celebrate with lamb, and, throughout communications, will be inspiration for cooking with leftovers to get the best value and to counter food waste.

The QMS toolkit with key messages and social assets is available for all in the industry to use and share. To download the toolkit, visit https://www.qmscotland.co.uk/sites/default/files/spring_final.pdf.