Almost half a million more shoppers bought fresh British pork during the two phases of a new £3 million advertising campaign promoting the meat.
The midweek meals campaign by AHDB, as part of a three year strategy to rejuvenate the image of pork, included prime time TV adverts, shown during autumn and in January 2018.
It was supported by major retailers, with print, digital and social media, helping it reach a staggering 26 million households – approximately 95 per cent of Britain.
Research from Kantar showed the campaign also delivered incremental revenue of £13.2 million, with £6.43 of extra retail sales generated for each £1 of marketing media spend.
AHDB Pork Strategy Director, Angela Christison said the campaign's humour and clear messaging appealed to consumers.
“The on-pack stickers and point of sale materials helped convert this interest into sales,” Ms Christison said.
“We broke new ground with medallions, reaching health-conscious consumers and those who may have never bought pork before, people who are traditionally hard to reach.”
Highlights of the campaign included Olympic medallist Rebecca Adlington, who promoted the health credentials of pork medallions with a special midweek recipe video, which was viewed more than 80,000 times.
Consumers made comments about the adverts including: “[It] got me thinking that we’ve not had pork medallions for a while, and we love them.”
Backed by a further £2.5 million investment, promotion will continue this September and again in 2019.
The advert follows research which shows consumer perception tends to link pork to a fatty, old-fashioned meat, which is a barrier to purchase for some consumers.
In order to demonstrate its health credentials, AHDB Pork commissioned nutritional testing to provide evidence that these cuts are low in fat and low in saturated fat.
The UK pig industry isn't just looking at its domestic market for expansion. Pork has been touted as the meat that offers the best potential for exports to non-EU markets.
