Scotch red meat campaign aims to reach four in five Scottish adults

Quality Meat Scotland is launching a major autumn campaign aimed at reaching 80% of Scottish adults and boosting demand for Scotch Beef, Scotch Lamb and Prime Scottish Pork.

The latest phase of its flagship Make it Scotch campaign, “When You Know, You Know”, will launch on 1 September across television, radio, press, social media and digital advertising.

The campaign supports a Scottish red meat sector valued by QMS at £3.2 billion and providing more than 39,000 jobs, many of them in rural communities.

QMS said the autumn push will position Scotch red meat as a trusted and versatile choice for seasonal meals while highlighting the standards, provenance and expertise behind the brands.

The creative centres on the message “The Standard is Set Here”, using stories about livestock, the environment and the skills of farmers, processors and butchers to demonstrate what QMS describes as the Scotch difference.

A new 30-second advert will run on STV Player and Sky Regional, supported by radio, print, online and targeted digital activity.

The Struthers family will also return to screens in QMS’s “day in the life of a cattle and sheep farmer” creative during STV’s Sustainable Scotland Week, which runs from 29 September to 5 October.

Farmer Jenny McKerr and butcher Stuart Mackie will feature as part of a media partnership, while recipe content will appear through the Daily Record and Sunday Mail.

Further campaign activity will run across Hits Radio Scotland, STV radio, Meta and YouTube.

QMS is also planning a Farm to Fork influencer and media event designed to connect content creators with people working throughout the Scotch red meat supply chain.

Participants will have the opportunity to engage with QMS quality assurance experts and learn more about the standards, traceability and care underpinning the Scotch brands.

Emma Heath, director of marketing at QMS, said: “Autumn is a key seasonal moment for Scotch Beef, Scotch Lamb and Prime Scottish Pork as people start to look back to ‘comfort food’, and this campaign gives us a powerful opportunity to remind consumers of the care, craft, provenance and quality assurance behind our brands.”

The “When You Know, You Know” campaign has continued to evolve over the past two years, with greater emphasis on explaining the story behind the familiar Scotch brand blue labels.

Ms Heath said: “For the last 2 years, the ‘When You Know, You Know’ campaign has continued to evolve, with the central idea to tell the story behind our renowned blue labels and explain the Scotch difference through the details that matter - from the livestock and the environment to the skill of farmers, processors and butchers across the whole supply chain.”

QMS said the campaign is also intended to reinforce the economic and industry importance of Scotland’s red meat brands.

According to the organisation, 90% of Scotland’s cattle, sheep and pigs farmed for red meat are part of its recognised assurance schemes.

Those schemes underpin Scotch Beef UK GI, Scotch Lamb UK GI and Prime Scottish Pork, with an emphasis on quality assurance, traceability, provenance and farming standards.

The Make it Scotch autumn activity will form part of QMS’s wider effort to support demand for Scottish red meat while promoting the standards and supply chains behind a sector worth billions of pounds to the Scottish economy.