British Lion eggs announce new marketing campaigns

British Lion eggs is launching a high profile £1 million marketing programme for 2012, combining an aggressive trade campaign to promote the guaranteed legality of Lion eggs and egg products, in light of the EU ban on conventional battery cages, and a new consumer promotional campaign with the theme ’Think Outside the Box’. The campaign is designed to fuel the growth of the UK egg market as well as protect the British Lion share of the market.

A heavyweight trade communications campaign, including print and on-line advertising and direct mail, will target retailers, food manufacturers and caterers encouraging them to specify Lion eggs and egg products to ensure compliance with the 2012 conventional cage ban. A new website will be launched to explain the risk of purchasing non-compliant eggs from EU countries still producing eggs from conventional battery cages. Trade buyers and consumers will also be encouraged to pledge their support for British egg producers via the website.

The ’Think Outside the Box’ campaign will encourage consumers to make more of eggs in main meals. A number of top chefs have been recruited to come up with a collection of new recipes, each collection using a box of 12 eggs. These will capitalise on eggs’ appeal across a range of meal occasions – family, ’foody’, health-conscious, and ’eggonomical’.

The chefs’ recipes will be launched in January on a new ’Think Outside the Box’ section on the egg recipes website, as well as on a You Tube channel where consumers can watch videos showing how to produce quick and easy meals with eggs.

The ’Think Outside the Box’ campaign will be extended into the summer with a series of advertorials across consumer magazines to encourage the use of eggs in summer recipes.

The ’Eggs for Action’ campaign, launched this year to highlight the benefits of eggs for sports-lovers, will continue into 2012 with a new booklet of recipes and tips distributed to health-conscious consumers.

"2012 is a big year for the UK egg industry and we have a focussed marketing programme designed both to protect and promote British Lion eggs," says Andrew Parker, Chairman of the British Egg Industry Council.

"Our trade customers will be given a very clear message about the need to specify Lion to guard against illegal eggs, while consumers will be inspired to ’think outside the box’ with a new recipe collection which will showcase the amazing versatility of our product.

"Our aim is to grow the total UK egg market as well as grow Lion eggs’ share of the market."

The 2011 British Lion eggs campaign will also include activity reinforcing the health benefits of eggs to health professionals and a range of opinion-formers, and British Egg Week 2012 in October will again feature national TV advertising to support the ’Look for the Lion’ message.