The Taoiseach Leo Varadkar T.D. joined Bord Bia and its French and UK partners during his visit to Paris earlier this week to welcome the announcement of EU Commission support for a new three year EU Lamb Promotion Campaign valued at €10.3m (2018-’20).
Bord Bia, Intervbev (France) and AHDB (UK) submitted the joint application for the campaign which will promote the versatility, convenience and great taste of European lamb to consumers within the 25-35 year group across Ireland, France, Germany and the UK.
This new generic lamb campaign will build upon the work of the EU co-funded promotion “Lamb – Tasty, Easy, Fun” which was a joint initiative between the three agencies over the period 2015 – ’17.. Given the target audience of young consumers the campaign will focus on a broad range of activities to include digital and social media, outdoor advertising, consumer events, business to business workshops and key opinion leaders and experts to deliver its message.
The total campaign spend of €10.3million, includes 80% co-funding support from the EU, equivalent to €8.3m. The remaining balance of €2million will be covered by the three promotional agencies, of which Bord Bia will contribute up to €300,000 over the lifetime of the campaign.
Noreen Lanigan, Bord Bia Manager for France, Belgium and Luxemburg outlined the targets of the campaign: "As major European sheep meat producing countries, we have a shared interest in working together to tackle the decline in sheep meat consumption. Over the lifetime of the campaign we aim to increase the intention to purchase lamb among consumers aged 25-35 by 10%, increase their appreciation of the role sheep farming plays in the preservation and upkeep of the land and a 15% improvement in the perceptions of European lamb as an “everyday meal” among this age cohort."