Beef revenue grows by £10m after UK-wide campaign

The revenue growth equates to 742 tonnes of beef steak sold over the eight-week period
The revenue growth equates to 742 tonnes of beef steak sold over the eight-week period

Beef revenue has grown by almost £10 million following a national campaign urging the public to ramp up support for the British red meat industry.

The eight-week spring campaign encouraged consumers to ‘Make It’ with locally sourced beef to support producers nationwide.

The fallout from the Covid pandemic had a major impact on the UK beef industry, as demand for premium cuts dropped as restaurants were forced to close.

Farmers and processors were also faced with a drop in the value of the whole beef carcass.

The revenue growth generated as a result of the campaign equates to 742 tonnes of beef steak sold over the eight-week period.

The results also highlighted the campaign’s ‘halo effect’ on wider beef sales, with the activity generating a return in retail sales of £24.7m across the primary fresh beef category.

The push reached 93% of Brits through a mix of TV sponsorship, digital and social media, radio and press partnerships. It was also supported by retailers.

Sales generated by region were largely in line with expectations, with England generating nearly 85 percent of total sales - a contribution of almost £8.5m.

The project was jointly funded by the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB), Quality Meat Scotland (QMS) and Hybu Cig Cymru – Meat Promotion Wales (HCC).

Rebecca Miah, AHDB’s interim beef strategy director, said: “The campaign helped rebalance the market by encouraging consumers when cooking to ‘make it’ using top quality locally sourced beef to create restaurant-inspired meals at home.

“We’re really pleased with the results, which gave a much-needed boost to the beef supply chain and helped redress carcass balance”

Highlights of the media activity included two high impact MailOnline takeovers, which generated over 127 million impressions.

Scotch Beef PGI, PGI Welsh Beef and Red Tractor Beef also became sponsors of Afternoon Movies and Drama on Channel 5 with sponsorship bumpers appearing alongside popular shows.

The campaign was also seen on video-on-demand, hosted on ITV Hub, ALL 4 and Sky On Demand. These promoted the use of steaks and roasts.

Targeted social media adverts were a major success, generating 47m impressions and contributing to over 500,000 website clicks to the levy boards’ regional consumer sites.