A high-profile campaign to increase sales using mini roasts has created an £18.6 million “halo” effect of incremental sales for beef, lamb or pork joints.
With 22 million households reached via TV, press and digital activity, the autumn 2016 AHDB Beef & Lamb campaign added £1.3 million in mini roast sales.
Developing performance from earlier years, the 2016 activity created a better balance between an increase in sales of beef and lamb mini roasts. Lamb accounted for a third of the uplift bringing in almost £430,000 over eight weeks, last autumn.
As a result of marketing, PR and activity to develop closer relationships with processors, retailers have backed the initiative with new products – bringing 28 mini roast joints to market over the last two years.
The campaign has generated return on investment – for every £1 spent there was a retail sales return of £1.77 within the beef and lamb mini roasts category and £25.56 in the wider red meat roasting category.
'Long-term decline'
Nick White, head of beef and lamb domestic marketing for AHDB, said: “Mini roasts were chosen as a campaign focus because – despite being an iconic British favourite – the traditional roast dinner was in long-term decline.
“With the increase of one or two person households, family gatherings for a big Sunday lunch are becoming more and more infrequent. The campaign promotes mini roasts as being perfect for a midweek meal and for two people. The PR activity that complemented the advertising campaign encouraged couples to have mini roasts as part of a ‘date night’ to liven up the week.
“In response, mini roasts have performed well with sales growth of 10% over the year, bucking the trend in the wider roasting joint category – even though it remains a niche cut within the segment.”
Three year investment
The campaign is one element of a broader marketing strategy, which sees AHDB work closely with processors, retailers and the wider agricultural industry.
Laura Ryan, sector strategy director for AHDB Beef and Lamb, said: “To engage more customers, we started the mini roasts campaign slightly earlier than the previous year, with a concentrated burst of activity. We also developed our approach, building on the second year of the campaign to make sure TV and press worked more effectively together.
“The mini roasts campaign was a three year investment which has been core to the AHDB Beef & Lamb market development team strategy. Having autumn as the key promotional period means that quality assured products are plentiful.
“The time and money invested is paying off, with research showing mini roasts are attracting new customers – converting people who simply don’t buy or rarely buy red meat joints, to become regular customers.”
The mini roast cut is being promoted as part of Ladies in Beef’s Great British Beef Week activity, which gets underway on St George’s Day (23 April) until May (1 May) bank holiday.
