Scotch Lamb Campaign Drives Encouraging Sales Boost

A Quality Meat Scotland (QMS) campaign to inspire consumers in Scotland about how versatile, tasty and simple to cook Scotch Lamb is has generated impressive results.

The nine-week long “Scotch Lamb Naturally” campaign for the first time included television advertising as part of the promotional mix, along with billboard, press, digital, social and radio advertising.

The campaign, which ran in August, September and October, resulted in a 27% increase in spend per buyer and a 20% increase in volume purchased per buyer during the 12-week campaign period, according to figures from Kantar Worldpanel to the week ending 4th November.

The TV advertising was part of a major drive behind Scotch Lamb PGI, partly financed by £200,000 of support from the Scottish Government which was announced by the First Minister at Turriff Show in July.

The new campaign highlighting what sets Scotch Lamb PGI apart reached over 95% of adults in Scotland, with those who were exposed to the campaign typically experiencing it 13 times.

A key focus of the campaign was to raise awareness of Scotch Lamb as a simple, quick mid-week meal and independent consumer tracking before and after the campaign by IGD revealed some impressive results.

These included an 11% increase in the view that lamb is quick and easy to cook with (up from 59% to 70%) among respondents who had seen the campaign. A significant lift in the number of Scots viewing lamb as a great midweek meal was also tracked, along with a noticeable rise in consumer trust in the Scotch Lamb brand.

The IGD tracking also revealed a significant increase (9%) in willingness to pay more for Scotch Lamb among those who had been aware of the marketing campaign.

QMS encouraged farmers and others involved in the production and retail of Scotch Lamb PGI to really get behind the new campaign and this included involving many farmers in Scotch Lamb sampling activities which took place in retailers up and down the country.

More than 16,000 samples of Scotch Lamb were distributed in Aldi and Morrisons stores during the campaign, which also generated an impressive social reach of more than 0.5 million on the Scotch Kitchen’s Facebook page alone.

“Our sincere thanks to all those who helped and supported us with the Scotch Lamb campaign this year. Particular thanks to our Scotch Lamb champions who proudly work in our industry throughout Scotland who helped spread the word during the campaign, particularly via social media,” said Carol McLaren, Director of Marketing and Communications with QMS.

Among those who committed to be “Lambassadors” during the campaign was First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, who announced £200,000 Scottish Government support In July.

Butchers and chefs also joined in the campaign activity. Scotch Butchers Club members who serve lamb received point of sale kits featuring the new “Scotch Lamb, Naturally” creative and recipes from six “hero” lamb dishes.