With UK Sausage Week now a key event in 2017’s industry calendar, Meat Management is urging butchers, manufacturers and foodservice providers to start thinking about how they can celebrate the campaign (30th October – 5th November).
There are many ways to get involved in UK Sausage Week which can have a real impact on business. We have outlined a small handful of ideas below:
Enter your sausages for a UK Sausage Week Award
The UK Sausage Week website includes a simple form allowing manufacturers, retailers and butchers to enter their sausages for the chance to win a UK Sausage Week award.
Entry is free and each company may enter a maximum of four different sausages (two sausages into each of the two categories: Traditional and Innovative.)
The traditional category can include regional specialities such as Cumberland, Lincolnshire and Newmarket. Meanwhile, for the innovative category, the judges are looking for creative and inspirational products using a diverse range of ingredients – the more unusual, the better!
All products will be put to the test by a panel of industry experts, headed-up by Institute of Meat CEO Keith Fisher, in September.
The winners, including the Supreme UK Champion, will be unveiled by celebrity ambassador Eric Knowles at the UK Sausage Week celebration lunch at Plaisterers’ Hall, London on 30th October.
Enter your products here: www.uksausageweek.com/product-entry
Offer customers sizzling recipes
The campaign’s organisers are compiling a selection of sausage recipes for butchers and multiple retailers to make use of during the week-long event are looking for industry to submit their favourites.
The best dishes will be available to download on the UK Sausage Week website and will also be published in Meat Management’s special UK Sausage Week supplement.
To upload a recipe for a sausage dish (or a sausage) visit: www.uksausageweek.com/recipes or email it to editorial@meatmanagement.com and don’t forget to include a photo of your creation.
Run in-store tastings, competitions and promotions
Butchers can benefit from increased custom and sales simply by highlighting the week through in-store materials (available soon from Meat Management) or launching new one-off and special sausages to promote and sell during the campaign. However, taking the initiative to hold sausage tastings, customer competitions and promotions will do even more to drive an increase in sales.
In previous Sausage Weeks butchers have got extremely creative. Many shops have held raffles where every customer who buys sausages during the week will go into a prize draw, and many have also run website promotions.
Celebrate Bonfire Night and Halloween
UK Sausage Week runs across both Halloween and Bonfire Night. Sausages and firework displays have gone hand in hand for generations. Why not create some limited edition Banging Bangers for the occasion using explosive ingredients such as hot chilli? Fun products like this are sure to create a buzz around the shop.
Butchers with a foodservice or catering-arm might also want to get involved in their local fireworks displays by providing sausages for the event.
Don’t forget Halloween also takes place during the campaign. Why not create Scary Bangers for the occasion by mixing unusual flavours or rename your products with a scary twist and create a real treat for any Trick or Treaters?
Be social media savvy
Keep up-to-date with all the latest UK Sausage Week news by following @UKSausageWeek on Twitter and use the hashtag #UKSausageWeek to share your special offers, favourite sausages, recipes and news.
You can also ‘Like’ the UK Sausage Week Facebook page and follow the campaign on LinkedIn.
The UK Sausage Week social media team will be supporting all things sausages in the run up to the campaign and are ready to interact with your business online.
Whatever UK Sausage Week plans you may have, make sure you tell the Meat Management team so we can promote your endeavours in our pages, online and through social media. Email editorial@meatmanagement.com.
For more information on the awards contact Emma Cash on emma.c@yandellmedia.com or 01908 613323 and for partnership opportunities contact Michelle Ingerfield on michelle.i@yandellmedia.com or 01908 613323.
This story was originally published on a previous version of the Meat Management website and so there may be some missing images and formatting issues.
