TV Advertising Set to Feature in New Scotch Lamb Campaign

Quality Meat Scotland (QMS) will next week launch a brand new “Scotch Lamb, Naturally” campaign to inspire and encourage consumers in Scotland to seek out lamb as a tasty, quick, simple meal.

The nine-week long campaign, which starts on August 27th, will for the first time include television advertising as part of the promotional mix, along with billboard, press, digital, social and radio advertising.

The TV advertising will run for the entire month of October as part of the major drive behind Scotch Lamb PGI, partly financed by the £200,000 support from the Scottish Government announced by the First Minister at Turriff Show.

The new campaign highlights what sets Scotch Lamb PGI apart as well as its versatility and simplicity as a cooking ingredient and is set to reach 4.2 million consumers (94% of the adult population) during September and October.

“Our 2018 Scotch Lamb campaign has been developed following a restructure at QMS, which saw the successful amalgamation of our marketing and communications teams,” said Alan Clarke, Chief Executive of QMS

“As a result we have developed a fully integrated PR and marketing campaign. We have also appointed a new creative agency, Weber Shandwick, to work with us on the new campaign so there has been a fresh approach to the creative route.

“They will also be working with us on marketing and PR activity behind Scotch Beef PGI and Specially Selected Pork and we will be announcing our plans for those campaigns shortly.”

The new Scotch Lamb campaign was developed following extensive consumer research which included more than 14,000 minutes of focus group work across Scotland to gain a clear insight into consumer perception of the Scotch Lamb brand and lamb in general.

“The results of this, and other research, gave us a very clear picture of what would resonate most strongly with our target audience and the messages we needed to get to them,” said Carol McLaren, QMS Director of Marketing and Communications.

“What was very clear was that consumers care about the ethics behind lamb production, including animal welfare, and that supporting local farmers and economies is also important to them. We also know that consumers are becoming more and more interested in understanding the health properties of the meat they buy.”

Average consumption of lamb in Scotland, the focus of the 2018 campaign, is only half of what it is for the UK as a whole.

“We have a great message to take to consumers. We have a delicious, nutritious quality assured food produced naturally right on our doorstep and there are endless tasty, mid-week lamb meals which take 30 minutes or less to cook,” Ms McLaren added.

The target audiences identified for the new campaign are high-level viewers of live TV which is why television will feature strongly in the new campaign.

Public relations activity will be undertaken throughout the campaign period and this will include an unprecedented drive to encourage those working in the Scottish sheep industry, and supporting businesses, to really get behind their brand.

“We have Scotch Lamb champions, based throughout Scotland, lined up ready to support the campaign and really help us drive home the message to consumers up and down the country. The support of these “Lambassadors” will be invaluable to the success of the 2018 campaign,” added Ms McLaren.

Sheep farmers, including members of the National Sheep Association and NFU Scotland, will be taking part in PR activities including media interviews and lamb sampling in retailers, during the campaign.

A number of new initiatives are set to be undertaken during #lovelambweek, which runs from September 1 - 7, including a social media “Scotch Lamb Challenge”. This will encourage people to share their recipes, lamb dishes and lambassador experiences via Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

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