Beef and lamb: what do I get for my levy? – Marketing to the UK consumer

The positioning of beef and lamb from Britain as a healthy and sustainable mealtime choice is a key priority for AHDB. Over recent years, the impact of the environment and health on the traditional red meat category has led to changes in what people are buying. 

Read an overview of all marketing campaigns.

2020/21 campaigns – what have we achieved? 

• Six marketing campaigns for beef and lamb 
• Over £12 million in retail sales to the beef and lamb categories 
• An extra 1,000 tonnes of beef steak and lamb sales, supporting carcass balance through lockdown  
• Over 750,000 new buyers to the beef steak and lamb categories 
• For every £1 invested, the campaign returned an average of £9 in retail sales  

January – February 2021 

A pilot campaign to protect and improve longer term consumer attitudes to British meat and dairy, with a specific focus on health, the environment, and welfare standards.  

We Eat Balanced results: 

• More people intended to buy meat and dairy  
• Fewer people intended to cut back on their meant and dairy 
• Shoppers were more reassured on nutrition and agreement with the statement that red meat and dairy ''is an important part of a balanced, healthy'' increased
• More people believed meat and dairy is produced naturally and agreed with the statement that red meat and dairy ''is naturally produced''
• Seen by over 15 million households
• Generated more than 80 million social media impressions

May 2020

A Covid/lockdown response to support the industry challenge of carcass balance. A surplus of high value hind quarter steaks was caused by a combination of people panic buying mince, coupled with national closures of restaurants (a key market for steak).

Make it Steak results:

• An additional 750 tonnes of steak was sold as a direct result of the campaign
• Every £1 invested the campaign returned £12.30 in retail sales
• The campaign added 432K new buyers to the steak category
• The TV and radio led advertising campaign reached 90% of the UK population
• 190 Million impressions (people seeing the message) across digital and social
• In-store activity across big seven retailers
• 360K video views of recipes
• Significant support from processors and retailers

July 2020 and September 2020

A Covid/ lockdown response to stimulate lamb sales in home, following the closure of restaurants (a critical market for lamb).

Make it Lamb results:

• An additional 261 tonnes of lamb was sold as a direct result of the campaign
• For every £1 invested the campaign returned £5.59 in retail sales
• The campaign added 272K new buyers to the lamb category
• The TV and radio led advertising campaign reached 74% of the UK population
• 115 Million impressions (people seeing the message) across digital and social
• In-store activity across big seven retailers
• Significant support from processors and retailers

• Over 200 pieces of national media coverage, including mentions on BBC's Saturday Kitchen and ITV's This Morning    
• 19 million impressions (people seeing the message) on social media  

• A celebrity lamb cook-off on QSM's Twitter account between cricket stars Michael Vaughan and Phil Tufnell reaching over 80,000 people 

Claims by Quorn and the BBC on the environmental impact of red meat in the UK were successfully challenged by AHDB.

Quorn had claimed that ‘‘carbon emissions from livestock are greater than those of all global transport’’, and the BBC that ''cutting meat is the single biggest way to reduce your environmental impact’’. As a result of the challange, this information was amended to reflect current scientific research.

AHDB partners with the British Nutrition Foundation to support food education in the UK and deliver the Food – a fact of life (FFL) programme.

The aim of the programme is to ensure that young people are better informed about where food comes from, as well as the skills and knowledge for cooking and healthy eating. It is designed for teachers of 3 to 16-year-olds and provides curriculum-relevant resources and teacher training.

Since 2018:

• Over 1.1 million users visited the FFL website
• Over three million downloads of FFL resources and recipes
• Over 2,800 attendees to our FFL teacher training events, including conferences, webinars and workshops

As a result of using the FFL website users reported that:

• 85% of their pupils were better informed about where their food comes from
• 88% of their pupils were now better informed about healthy eating
• 69% of their pupils were better informed about how to cook

The main findings from those that attended the training events and completed the follow up evaluation surveys were:

• 84% had updated their teaching practice
• 97% were better informed about food skills
• 100% were more confident to teach food skills