An advertising campaign promoting British beef brought in an additional £1.2m of retail sales in 2018.
AHDB’s 'Cheeky Beef' campaign boosted sales to the thin cut steaks category, according to Kantar Worldpanel’s Consumer Mix Model.
The humorous campaign, aimed at couples aged 25 to 44 years old, promotes thin cut steaks as a quick and easy midweek meal.
Thin cut steaks were specifically chosen as they provided an industry solution to a carcase balance issue, as they utilise cuts that are in surplus during the summer months.
Recipes and images featuring saucy slogans such as “Fancy a midweek quickie?” were rolled out across national newspapers, billboards near to supermarkets and social media over an 11-week period from late May last year.
Retailers including Sainsbury’s, Asda, Morrisons, the Co-op and Aldi supported the campaign.
Further analysis in Kantar Worldpanel picked out that 62 per cent of UK households were reached by the campaign, an average of nine times each.
Consumer research conducted by Future Thinking also reported a ten per cent rise in claimed mid-week consumption of thin cut steaks.
New buyers accounted for 37 per cent of the additional spend, adding 106,000 new households to the category.
Thin cut steak sales increased by more than 49 per cent in volume terms in the 12 weeks in and around the campaign period and total beef benefited from a £1.6 million halo effect in retail sales.
To further raise awareness with shoppers, thin cut steaks will be promoted during Great British Beef Week, organised by Ladies in Beef, which runs from 1 April until 7 April.
