Featuring the voices of real farmers, Hybu Cig Cymru – Meat Promotion Wales’ recent PGI Welsh Beef advertising campaign has resonated with the public.
In advance of Great British Beef Week, which starts on 23rd April, Hybu Cig Cymru – Meat Promotion Wales (HCC) has announced that its recent multi-media ’Naturally Local’ PGI Welsh Beef campaign has built on the success of previous advertising.
A wide-reaching message
The campaign focused on core TV channels, including ITV and S4C, as well as nationwide radio, out-of-home, and digital activity, reaching more than 1.5 million people across Wales and helping to drive almost 50,000 additional visits to the website. Running during the key retail period in the lead up to Christmas last year, the campaign maintained “high levels of brand awareness” among shoppers, with post-campaign polling showing that 83% of adults in Wales recognised the brand and almost two-thirds of Welsh consumers had a willingness to purchase the product.
The campaign featured a diversity of farmers from the fringes of Cardiff to the uplands of Ceredigion, and all the way to land beside the Menai Straits. HCC noted: “Each had their own unique story of championing sustainable farming methods, and how Welsh Beef should be the ’naturally local’ choice to those living in Wales”.
Farming in Wales
In a statement, HCC said that in addition to offering food security, research shows that the farming industry is “crucial to the social, economic, and environmental wellbeing of rural Wales” and that it not only contributes to job creation, but that estimates of local spend and multiplier effects suggest that family farms in Wales procure more than 80% of good and services within a 25-mile radius of the holding, and as such are making a wider contribution to local economies and communities.
Work is also taking place to ensure that the sector is focused on the sustainability agenda, and HCC states that the current ’Breeding better beef and sheep’ project, in partnership with a large consortium of industry and academic organisations, will help further improve environmental sustainability.
“We have complete confidence in Welsh Beef as a high quality, natural, and sustainable product.”
Philippa Gill, HCC brand engagement lead
Philippa Gill, HCC brand engagement lead, commented: “We’re delighted that we’ve been able to maintain the fantastic results of last year’s campaign, where we started to introduce an element of television into our marketing strategy.
“The brand awareness, and willingness of consumers to purchase the product, remains impressively high, which just goes to show that our farmers’ stories continue to resonate with people across Wales.
“We have complete confidence in Welsh Beef as a high quality, natural, and sustainable product, and it is great that our farmers are such fantastically authentic ambassadors for it.”
