Stimulating demand for British pork

Our Midweek Meals and pulled pork campaigns have delivered over £37m of incremental retail sales for the pig industry. The 2022 Midweek Meal Campaign reached over 85% of UK households, with the highest levels of positive attitudes towards pork being a nutritious and versatile choice in three years.

The intention, of course, is to ensure there is a prosperous future for the pork industry. A great deal of time and effort goes into planning our marketing campaigns to positively influence consumers attitudes to pork, by carefully targeting specific groups of consumers and highlighting particular cuts of pork.

Our marketing activity therefore continually reinforces those key attributes of pork that meet consumers’ needs, while adjusting the messaging where appropriate to seasonal trends or shifts in consumer priorities.

We run a series of campaigns each year and also make the most of special occasions. The Queens platinum jubilee in June provided us with a great opportunity to do just that and we developed a campaign to promote pork steaks as the ideal choice for a jubilee BBQ.

The campaign informed consumers about how easy it is to cook steaks on the barbecue and to make your own burgers and koftas with pork mince. From step-by-step prepping, flavouring and cooking methods, to new recipes perfect for Jubilee parties, consumers were reminded that anybody can put together a tasty and stress-free BBQ fit for royalty. This campaign is being followed by another BBQ focused campaign in early July to coincide with British BBQ week.

In January we ran a TV advertising campaign which encouraged consumers to consider pork medallions as a healthy mid-week meal option. Our focus on the healthy eating benefits of pork tapped into the trend for New Year’s resolutions and health kicks. The campaign was supported on social media targeting audiences interested in health.

We also integrated all our campaign activity with retailers, to ensure that the relevant cuts of pork were stocked in stores, and campaign materials and recipes were clearly visible on packs, meat counters and online. The campaign complemented the We Eat Balanced cross-sector campaign, which ran at the same time to drive a positive rethink of meat and dairy, and celebrated the work of British farmers.

Looking ahead to plans for this autumn’s campaign, we will continue to protect long-term consumer attitudes to fresh pork while promoting cheaper cuts of pork shoulder, mince and sausages to help with carcase balance. Our campaign messaging will focus on value and affordability, with the strapline ‘feed your family for less.’ The current cost of living crisis makes this particularly relevant and as pork is likely to remain the second cheapest protein after chicken, we need to raise awareness of pork being a good value choice for the budget conscious, while offering other great benefits such as versatility, taste and ease.

We are also developing new content for 2023 to target GEN Z (18–25-year-olds), the next generation of pork consumers. Exciting content across TikTok and other social media channels will bust myths around pork in a funny and disruptive manner. Promoting pork to the next generation will be key to a prosperous and sustainable future for the pork industry.