Feed the family for less with pork

In autumn 2022 our ‘Mix up Midweek’ campaign returned for its sixth year, running from 17 October to 25 November.

The campaign continued to protect long-term consumer attitudes toward fresh primary pork and encourage regular purchase.

The ongoing cost-of-living crisis highlighted the importance of cost in consumers' decision-making, therefore the campaign showcased pork as a good value, affordable and versatile meat, with the overarching message being to ‘Feed the family for less with pork’.

Where possible, our campaigns signpost consumers to British pork by using the Red Tractor logo and we aim to actively promote British cuts. In fact, 95% of pork shoulder volumes sold in retailers at the time of the campaign were British – so nearly all pork shoulder sales, as a result of the autumn campaign, will have benefited a British pig producer.

Recipe development to inspire consumers

We developed new budget-friendly recipes specifically for this campaign, including these Hoisin pork meatballs, easy sausage biryani and one-pot sausage braise, that will all feed a family of four for under £5, with some recipes coming in at under £1 a head.  

Two blogs ‘Money Saving Tips’ and ‘Batch Cooking for the Family’ provided further inspiration and tips for how consumers can cut costs while cooking with pork.

Marketing activity

We worked with the following major supermarkets as part of the campaign:

Tesco
Sainsburys
Lidl
Aldi
Asda
Waitrose
Co-Op
Morrisons

The retailers included on-pack stickers, online banners, aisle fins and static recipe barkers to promote the campaign both in store and online.

Video on demand (VOD) advertising

Our 30-second video appeared on screens across the UK on ITV, Channel 4 and Sky’s catch-up TV.

The advert was also shown on YouTube and a variety of other food and lifestyle websites.

Social media

We shared engaging posts featuring the new recipes across Facebook, Instagram, Reddit and Pinterest.

We also partnered with Instagram and TikTok influencers to further inspire consumers to cook with pork. They shared tasty budget-friendly recipes.

You can view The Batch Lady’s ‘Summer sausage traybake’ video on Instagram.

Results

Independent market research before and after the campaign indicates that more shoppers will be putting pork in their trolleys having seen this campaign's new recipes and messaging.

It positively influenced the target audience to have the following perceptions:

88% believed that pork is versatile and easy to cook
88% felt pork could be used in a number of dishes
86% considered pork to be quick to cook
86% thought of pork as a delicious meal option
83% thought that pork could help them feed their family for less
78% were encouraged to try new recipes with pork

Source: Campaign evaluation Y6, Two Ears One Mouth, January 2023

These figures are significantly higher than those pre-campaign and the highest in three years.

Commenting on the success of the campaign, Nicola Dodd, AHDB’s Senior Marketing Manager for Pork, said:

"Purchase intent, that is how likely it is that a consumer will buy a product the next time they go grocery shopping, now sits at 79%, the highest level we’ve seen in over a year.

"The results also demonstrate that messages around value and affordability have landed well, with an additional 14% of people referencing ‘affordability’ as a main takeaway message from the campaign compared with our previous autumn activity."

Listen to our podcast

Hear more about the campaign as part of our Food and Farming podcast, 'Does marketing ever stop? Not at AHDB' episode.