Anna Rose Garvey, Milan Office, Bord Bia – Irish Food Board
This October, Bord Bia will launch a new Beef Consumer Campaign in 3 major Italian cities: Milan, Turin and Bologna. The core of this campaign is quality, and the objectives for this campaign are: to increase awareness of Irish beef in Italy, to support Italian retailers of Irish beef, and to promote a positive image of Irish beef amongst consumers. The media mix employed in this campaign will consist of mega posters around the cities, bus shelter billboards, digital totems in malls and side banners on Bolognese buses, with a total estimation of over 250 million touchpoints.
This campaign coincides with an Instagram campaign that took place recently from the 4th to the 6th of October. On this trip, influencers were brought around Ireland to get a full picture of the quality of Irish beef, and the story and beauty of Irish farming. Through publishing stories and posts on their accounts both during and after the trip, this digital campaign linked in with the outdoor advertising in Italy. By employing this use of both digital and print advertising, we can target our core Italian consumer of Irish beef while monitoring their behaviour through their interactions with the posts and stories of the influencers, and channel them to the www.irishbeef.it website.
Italian consumers place a lot of importance in quality when it comes to food choices (Euromonitor 2019). This is why quality is the key message of this campaign. In the image above, we can see the tagline for this campaign: “Buona per Natura”, which translates to “naturally delicious”. Underneath there are three key points about animal welfare, the lush pasture of Ireland, and quality assurance.
Since 2017, the consumption of red meat is increasing in Italy, and is projected to sustain a CAGR of 2.5% in volume terms towards 2023. (Global Data 2019). With over€ 180 million worth of beef exports in 2018 (Bord Bia 2019), Italy is an important market for Irish beef. In order to support and build the demand for premium Irish beef in the retail and food service sector, the Bord Bia Milan office started to run these B2C campaigns in Italy in 2017 and will continue promoting Irish Beef at both at consumer and trade level through the range of services and activities it provides.
Sources
Euromonitor International Passport (2019) Meat in Italy. Euromonitor international
Global Data (2019) Italy Meat. GlobalData Plc
Bord Bia (2019) Italian Market Entry Guide