A BIG, bold campaign dealing with love and cheeky deception is the basis for the first stage of the new beef media push which blasted off at the weekend.
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Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) said it would be the biggest beef campaign in history, aiming to hit 14.6 million Aussies right between the eyes with a glossy message which ends up being romantic and heart warming.
The first stage of the campaign is a television commercial set at a wedding reception before the main meal.
The guests’ true colours soon become obvious as they embark on a series of increasingly extreme measures to make sure they get the beef – and not the alternate option.
The second ad uses a slow-motion effect to emphasise the "Trust your beeflex" line, as a man saves a falling sausage at a barbecue.
The big dollar promotional rollout comes hot on the heels of criticism of MLA’s beef marketing efforts and a renewed push by the Australian Beef Association to wind the organisation up.
MLA general manager marketing, Glen Feist, said more Australians would see the new television commercial than any other beef campaign in MLA’s history.
“We want to remind all consumers in Australia – our biggest market – how iconic and integral beef is in their everyday lives by rekindling their love for beef,” Mr Feist said.
“The beef campaign aims to engage consumers on a deeper level, reviving the strong emotional bond Australians have with beef and getting it back on top of the weekly menu where it belongs.”
He said this fresh approach to marketing beef would build on the success of Entice magazine, which has been an essential ingredient in helping increase consumer expenditure on beef to a record high of $7.2 billion in 2009-10.
The new campaign will be supported by additional social media and public relations activities, including using chefs to get Australia’s food media talking about beef, and running an on-air competition that gives Australians the chance to win their ultimate beef wedding reception.
The strategy will also include exclusive cooking seminars for food media with celebrity chef, Justin North, and an on-air competition with Australia’s version of Iron Chef.
The campaign comes on the back of what have been tough times for the beef industry in the past few years.
Speaking at the Australian Livestock and Property Agents Association annual general meeting a fortnight ago, MLA chairman, Don Heatley, said the beef industry, in particular, was in a tight situation in regard to productivity.
As a result, he acknowledged there was anxiety at the coalface of the industry about where it was heading.
“Things are not easy and there is a degree of frustration – but I have to say, when has this industry ever been easy,” he said.
He said the beef industry needed to make a 2.6pc productivity gain per year just to stand still.
“Often, when you ask people what their cost of production is, there is silence in the room, and that’s one of my biggest frustrations in my position at this stage.”
He said cost of production was the bottom line.
