Campaign to boost red meat sales in the festive period

A new advertising campaign to boost red meat sales ahead of Christmas has gone live, starring some familiar faces. Watch it here.

An advertising campaign to put beef and lamb on the festive season menu will kick off at the end of this week as Meat and Livestock Australia attempt to drive up demand.

The advertisement will not go on television due to the cost of advertising in December but instead will be promoted through social media and producers will be asked to share the campaign too.

It’s the first time that red meat will be aggressively pushed at this time of year and MLA marketing and insights general manager Nathan Low said it was in response to burgeoning supplies of beef and sheep meat.

Mr Low said red meat sales were normally quieter in the retail environment in December, a period that was “owned by ham and pork”.

But because there were strong supplies of cattle and lambs, the decision was taken to run the December campaign to boost consumption.

“We know the retailers are driving beef and lamb pretty hard (at the moment) and it is in catalogues more than it usually is this time of year,” Mr Low said.

The ad features iconic lambassador and ex-AFL star, Sam Kekovich, and ex-Brisbane Broncos NRL player, Sam Thaiday representing beef, with the pair putting aside their differences in football codes to promote their shared love of Aussie red meats.

“Essentially, the campaign will deliver the message that producers have done an awesome job, there is lots of supply here in the supermarket this summer and to load up on beef and lamb for your BBQs,” Mr Low said.

“We would love for everyone to share on social channels as we all want to do our bit to shift as much volume as we can, both lamb and beef, by the end of the year.”

“It will be really interesting to see how it works to see if we can have a really strong December – a month that historically we under perform compared to the other proteins.”

The extra advertising will add to the normal Australia Day lamb campaign which will be launched in early January. This year, the lamb ad had a record 4.7 million views on YouTube.

Victorian Farmers Federation livestock group president Scott Young said he would love consumers to be buying more red meat.

“I would happily have a lamb roast on Christmas Day, and it’s a magnificent product,” Mr Young said.

“MLA is there to support our product and this what a campaign like this is doing.

“As producers, we don’t blame MLA for the drop in prices as that is down to a number of factors but it’s how we get through this period as best we can.”

MLA figures show both lamb and beef consumption were up in the past quarter.

Lamb sales were up 17.2 per cent compared to last year while beef sales rose 7.7 per cent.

This was off the back of prices falling 13.6 per cent in the past quarter to an average price of $15.15/kilogram while beef prices fell 6.4 per cent for an average of $16.26/kilogram.

Revenue was up 1.2 per cent for lamb and 0.9 per cent for beef.

“Overall value sales in both beef and lamb is up in the latest quarter which is a vote of confidence in our product and shows people still continue to love it,” Mr Low said.

“The headline I would like you to remember is more people are buying our product – more households are buying more often and more quantity, and spending more dollars on it, not just more volume.”