Effies 2008 - MLA

Lamb on Australia Day 2007-2009 – Meat & Livestock Australia
Lamb on Australia Day 2007 - 2009
Defying the law of diminishing returns one chop at a time.
Client
General Manager, Marketing: David Thomason
Manager - Strategy: Andrew Cox
Senior Brand Manager - Co-Author: Janice Byrnes
Marketing Coordinator Brands: Tiana Diep
Agency
Strategic / Data Planners - Authors: Gerry Cyron / Rob Chandler
Executive Creative Director: Warren Brown
CEO: Matthew Melhuish
Strategic Planning Director: Jeremy Nicholas
Creative Team: Dennis Koutoulogenis,
Jake Rusznyak,
Shane Gibson,
Dale McGuinness
Account Management: David Flanagan, Alison Tilling, Louise Mawer
Hausmann
Account Director: Sarah Mason
Account Manager: Jennifer Williams
Universal McCann
CEO: Henry Tajer
National Strategy & Comms Strategist: Nathan Brown
Client Service Manager: Natalie Harvey
Strategist: James Sneddon
Investment Manager: Andrew Murray
Implementation Planner: Hugo Cutrone
Objective:
Maintain Lamb s place as our national meat on our national day.
Results:
After 6 years of Australia Day campaigning we defied the rules of diminishing return and
delivered remarkable total return on investment of 8.04 for every dollar spent.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This case demonstrates how Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA), BMF,
Universal McCann and Hausmann defied the law of diminishing returns by
keeping the creative idea unexpected and sticky and the media fresh and
challenging.
The investment in Australia Day and breakthrough creative thinking has
delivered outstanding results for Lamb. Between 2007-2009 the advertising
idea and the media placement were responsible for generating $29.3 million
incremental revenue and a total return on investment of 8.04 for every dollar
spent.
This paper is also a testament to the people who are really behind our success
– our retailers & farmers.
We love our Lamb.

Lamb on Australia Day – Defying the Law of
Diminishing Returns One Chop at a Time
BACKGROUND
Traditionally, Lamb marketing was restricted to Spring when product quality
and supply was at its peak. With improved production methods and supply
chains, excellent quality Lamb became available all year round.
To achieve year-round presence on a low budget, Lamb sought to leverage
existing public holidays, occasions and events.
In 1999 Lamb s advertising highlighted the injustice of American tariffs on
Australian Lamb, imploring people to support the farmers and eat more Lamb.
As well as selling lots of Lamb, the campaign raised the awareness of
consumers to the Australian-ness of Lamb. Lamb became the source of
national pride.
Building on this national pride, Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) and BMF
saw the opportunity to create a Lamb event on Australia Day. Some key facts
encouraged the strategy:
Lamb has a unique historical connection with Australia like no other
food – Waltzing Matilda is about getting Lamb into a tuckerbag.
Mum s Lamb roast is an iconic meal among Australian families.
Lamb s tone of voice and brand personality is uniquely cheeky and
topical. No other food – especially no other meat – is able to claim an
event in the calendar.
2000 was the Olympic year, flag waving and patriotism was increasing.
January is a quiet time for food advertising – clear air to get our
message heard. Generally, it is quiet time for news too.
Australia Day was vacant – no brand owned it.
AUSTRALIA DAY CAMPAIGN HISTORY
In 2000, our first Australia Day campaign National Pride dramatised the
lengths other nations will go to celebrate their national day compared to the
Australian way: a Lamb chop on the barbie. Other spiky media fuelling
Australia Day campaigns followed.
However, it was not until 2005 that we unleashed Sam Kekovich to address
the nation with outrageous, intelligent, jingoistic comments on Australian life
and unAustralian eating habits, reaching from Asian influenced cuisine to
Vegetarianism, and the need for people to eat Lamb. In 2006, Lamb became
the solution for our cultural, social (Cronulla riots) and sporting ills (Ashes
loss).

2000 – 2006 CAMPAIGN ACHIEVEMENTS
We made Lamb our national dish on our national day
o We created demand for Lamb over the Australia Day period1
.
Weekly servings reached as high as 88% of pre-campaign levels
(Source: Roy Morgan).
o We engrained a new tradition into Australian BBQ culture. In fact,
Lamb had become to Australia Day what the chocolate egg is to
Easter or the turkey to Christmas & Thanksgiving in the USA.
We made Lamb topical by giving it a fresh, witty, brave and honest
tone of voice.
But where to from here?
AUSTRALIA DAY CAMPAIGN OBJECTIVES 2007–2009
Maintain Lamb s position as our national meat on our national day
Increase value of Lamb consumption in January
Integrate the creative idea into POS to get retail support
THE CHALLENGE IN A NUTSHELL
Sell more Lamb on Australia Day to more people with the same
marketing funds at steadily increasing retail prices.
How is that possible?
Lamb prices were soaring
Quarterly retail prices of Lamb increased by 93% from 2000. Quarterly
retail prices of Lamb increased by 93% from 2000. Imagine somebody
would ask you to pay double for your coffee. You d change cafés or
become a tea drinker.
1
Australia Day period is defined as January

Retailers had high expectations
Butchers and supermarkets had become conditioned to stock even
more Lamb for Australia Day each year. Failing to deliver on such high
expectations would damage the entire industry – as it would ultimately
lead to price slashing to get rid of excess stock and profit losses down
the line.
Stagnant Marketing Funds
Budget/Year Media ATL
production
Retail POS
production
PR Total
2007 $850K $120K $120K $100K $1.19m
2008 $850K $110K $130K $110K $1.2m
2009 $950K $120K $130K $60K $1.26m
(Source: MLA)
Law of diminishing returns
This law states that if one factor of production is increased while the others
remain constant, the overall returns will relatively decrease after a certain
point.
With another year of Lamb & Sam, same goals, and same target, we were
running the risk of being seen as complacent, predicable, and boring. The
consequence: wear out, loss of traction in the market and drop in sales.
We had to ask ourselves how much more effective could we be with the
same strategy, creative idea and execution?
What factors do we need to change to dial up momentum?
THE SOLUTION
Unlike other marketers who have an arsenal of variables they can change to
gain traction in the market, e.g. new product development, launch of new
flavours, new distribution channels, a fancy new pack etc., our variables were
limited to four.
These are:
1. The content and stickiness of the creative idea
2. The channel in which the creative idea lives
3. The way it gets spread via PR
4. To what extent we can stimulate retail support
Therefore, our creative idea had to be fresh, topical and ignite the water-cooler
conversation. Media had to step out of the predictable and challenge
established media conventions. PR needed to spread the word of Sam to all
corners of Australia, and retailers needed to be provided with collateral to rally
for our national meat, on our national Day.

2007:
With the federal election year dawning, Sam launched the Australia Day Party
to vote Lamb on Australia Day. We changed our media approach radically.
Rather than being on air for 90 secs over a period of time, we decided to
roadblock all channels for a one off address to the nation. We also localised
our campaign via 2 x 15” TVCs. The PR agency sent Sam on a campaign trail.
Our retailers turned their butcher s shops into voting booths with the POS
material provided.
Campaign Trail / PR Stunts
Website My Space Page
POS
3 minute TVC

The TVC script:
Super: An address to the nation by Sam Kekovich.
In this election year, Australians are faced with a stark choice: allow unAustralianism to flourish, or take
a stand against it, before it becomes as prevalent as exposed genitals on a reality television show.
I love Australia – her far horizons, her jewelled sea, the Aussie people and our Australian way of life. In
the past year, I’ve travelled all over this wide, brown land. I’ve met a few people, both young and old, and
listened to what they had to say.
I’ve seen first hand the devastation unAustralianism has caused. And frankly, I’ve had a gutful.
The desecration of the Australian flag was bad enough - imagine if people started burning Lamb chops as
well. And unAustralianism has played a role in the greatest disaster to befall our nation since tofu: the
early retirement of our greatest Olympic swimmer.
Is there anything more unAustralian than those gold-medal hungry Yanks who tried to poison a big-
hearted Aussie champion with the lure of Hollywood, just to stop him racing? It’s like Phar Lap all over
again. That’s the danger of too much LA and not enough L-A-M-B.
Our junket-loving, limousine-riding, over-superannuated politicians will bombard you with promises in
the coming months. But throwing money at the problem is not the answer – we need to throw Lamb at it
instead.
So men and women of Australia, it’s time. It’s time for the Australia Day Party. Our multi-pronged
“Lamb Plan” will take tax cuts off the table and dish out Lamb cuts instead.
Extradite the terrorists who were planning gas attacks on the Aussie cricket team in London, and put their
skills to good use filling barbecue gas bottles - they shouldn’t mind the odd explosion.
Scrap English tests for migrants – who cares how they use their tongue, as long as they can use their
tongs? Speaking of Tests, there’s one way to keep the Ashes permanently in Australia: make our own. The
ashes from a good Lamb barbie are a lot better than some burnt Pommy stump anyway.
And reduce global warming by finding alternatives to fossil fuels to power barbies. Uranium for example.
Think how many Lamb chops a portable nuclear reactor could cook. If the koala-suit wearing, tree-
hugging, alfalfa-munching lobby has a problem with that, they can chain themselves to the nearest plane.
I hear North Korea’s nice this time of year.
But governments can’t stop unAustralianism alone. A Lamb-led recovery has to start at the grass roots -
next to the Hills Hoist – with the Australia Day Party. It’s a simple concept: on January 26th
, all
Australians should gather in backyards around the nation, throw some Lamb chops on the barbie and
have an Australia Day Party of their own.
My fellow Australians, I have a dream that by Australia Day 2007, no Australian child will be living
without a nice, juicy Lamb chop.
I have a dream, that on Australia Day, mung beans and Lamb chops can sit together, side by side on the
same plate – as long as it’s not mine. And I have a dream. That Lamb can unite Australians of all colours
and creeds – even l hairy-legged, sandal-wearing lentileaters.
Super: Votelamb.com.au
So don’t be unAustralian. Vote Lamb on Australia Day. You know it makes sense. I’m Sam Kekovich.
Super: Authorised by D. Thomason for the Australia Day Party. Spoken by S. Kekovich.
Authorised by D. Thomason for the Australia Day Party. Spoken by yours truly.

2008:
2008 marked the year of the Olympics – a two-week extravaganza. Only what
was good enough for the Olympics should be good enough for Lamb. Thus,
rather than being pigeonholed to be served only on Australia Day we
demanded one week – Australia Week. And we got Sam petitioning. The PR
agency sent him to all four corners of Australia to promote his worthy cause.
And our retailers got behind this. What s better than three meal opportunities?
21! You do the maths.
But it was the way the team, led by Universal McCann, approached media that
multiplied our visibility in the market. Tracking data suggested that consumers
were looking forward to Sam s next stunt. Media interest for Sam rose in the
months leading to Australia Day. It became clear that our Australia Day had
stopped being advertising and turned into content – social and media currency.
This led to the idea to pitch the media budget to the media channels. The
winner: the channel that promised the best integration into their programmes to
multiply our reach and frequency.
Through the media partnership with Channel 7, Universal McCann were able to
integrate our idea into the Australian Open. For the next 14 days of the
tournament, Sam continued to appear in his very own segment in non-
commercial airtime. The segments, named 'Sam's Big Serves', appeared twice
daily, mixing humour with Lamb, tennis and current affairs.
POSTER PETITION
PACK STICKER
TVC STILLS

The TVC script:
My fellow Australians,
It is my solemn duty to inform you that it’s time to abolish Australia Day.
Our annual Lamb fest hasn’t stopped unAustralianism racing through the land like horse ‘flu through a
Japanese jockey club.
For example, if I see another binge-drinking, pill-popping, powder-sniffing footballer making a tearful
television apology, I’ll blow a fuse
Australia Day has had its day. We need Australia Week – a seven day Lamb-athon to properly celebrate
our great nation.
Instead of one public holiday, we need seven.
Instead of one Lamb barbie, we need 21 Lamb meal opportunities - not including snacks.
Which imbecile thought one day was long enough anyway?
Look at the Olympics, Oktoberfest, the Turkish Oiled Wrestling Festival – even APEC gets a week, and
that’s just a bunch of blokes in funny shirts (apart from Helen Clark, who does a passable
impersonation of a bloke anyway).
The placard-waving, police-bashing, weed-worshippers may protest about it, but it’s nothing a few
blasts from a water-cannon can’t fix – they could do with a wash.
And if they’re still too unAustralian to chomp a few chops with the rest of us, send them to Nauru. The
Refugee Processing Centre has plenty of palm trees they can hug.
I’ll be petitioning our new PM to officially recognise Australia Week.
If you still call Australia home, stack the fridge full of Lamb, take the week off, and celebrate with me.
Any boss that won’t let you is a bum. Just chuck a week of sickies instead – what could be more
Australian than that?
So don’t be unAustralian. Serve Lamb this Australia Week. You know it makes sense. I’m Sam
Kekovich.
Super: We love our Lamb

2009:
With the credit crunch looming, the only way out was to return to egalitarian
values: Lamb on the barbie. It was time to stand up against those gurus of
greed who had been making billion-dollar profits for years, and were now
crying poor and expecting average taxpayers to bail them out. Sam asked like-
minded people around the country to be like him and take a stand. Because
there was only one way to beat the credit crunch: munch Lamb. Butchers
followed suit and became once again a great supporter for Sam s noble cause.
We pitched the media budget in return for better integration into the
programming. 5x15 segments were produced to give people proper advice
from the Australian Chop Exchange.
POSTER MASK
PACK STICKER
TVC STILLS

The TVC Script:
My fellow Australians,
The world economy is rooted.
And it’s all due to one thing: unAustralianism.
Wall Street wankers and bottom-feeding, billionaire bankers, stuffing their wallets at the expense of
battlers – it’s about as unAustralian as it gets.
Sadly, Australia is not immune.
We’ve been seduced by 48-month interest-free, internet fridges that are smarter than the average
stockbroker.
Our Olympians sold themselves, flogging undies and waterproof laptops, while the Brits were flogging
us on the medals table.
And how can you splurge $130 million on a 3-hour movie called Australia, and not spend one cent on
showing a Lamb barbie?
What a load of bulldust.
We need to return to the egalitarian values that made Australia great, embodied in our national dish:
the barbecued lamb chop.
A chop tastes the same in a designer outfit as it does in stubbies and thongs.
Which reminds us you don’t need to be an overpaid, pin-striped parasite from a millionaire’s factory.
To be truly happy, you just need a chop and a cold one.
The short-selling, rogue-trading, corporate crooks may disagree with me, but they can go jump.
And if they don’t know the way I’ll push them in the right direction.
So the message is clear: the only rescue package we need is wrapped in butcher’s paper, and filled with
nice, juicy lamb chops.
Because there’s only one way to beat the credit crunch: munch Lamb.
Not just me: I need EVERY Australian – the whole bloody lot of you – taking up the tongs and BEING
SAM KEKOVICH.
Can we change things if we all unite as a nation?
“Yes we can!”
So don’t be unAustralian. Serve Lamb on Australia Day. You know it makes sense. We’re Sam
Kekovich.
We love our Lamb on Australia Day

RESULTS
The Australia Day Index enables us to assess the impact of price and demand
for Lamb during the campaign period. The chart below shows that the retail
price (line) of Lamb has increased significantly since 2004. Despite this price
rise, demand has remained strong peaking in 2007 (bars). In 2008 demand
remained significantly higher than pre-Kekovich times.
Although 2009 appears to show a price ceiling, this is most likely due to the
impact of economic downturn. Considering the economic conditions with
recession looming, demand has not shown the level of decrease we would
expect, retaining the same level of demand as in 2004, at a price 21% higher.
The chart below shows how marketing confidence plummeted.
Source: Roy Morgan

We believe that the impact of advertising significantly minimised the impact of
the downturn. In fact, without the advertising campaign the decline of serves
would have been considerably worse. The chart below illustrates the drop in
demand for Lamb.
However, further analysis shows that during the week leading up to Australia
Day, demand showed a far slower level of decline, 12% higher than for the
same week in 2004. This suggests that, despite hard times, people exercised
their Sam-given right to have their national meat on their national day. Lamb
has become not only a patriotic choice, but also a duty.

The graph below compares Australia Day week VS Average Weekly Sales
over time. It becomes clear that Australia Day has become a must eat Lamb
occasion, comes rain or shine, bear or bull market.
Source: Roy Morgan
In economic turmoil it is always the person at the bottom of the food chain who
must bear the burden.
Not in this case. Lamb marketing generated steady demand for Lamb on
Australia Day, which made it possible to share the profits. The chart below
shows that in 2009, the farmers were true beneficiaries of the price increases
with January carcase prices in the saleyard breaking the $3.60 per kg mark for
the first time since 2004.
Saleyard & Wholesale Price comparison

Using a 3-year rolling average for the period to account for natural growth, we
can isolate the effects of the campaign on January sales. The chart below
shows this increase. Between 2007-2009 the advertising idea and media
placement was responsible for generating $29.3 million incremental revenue
and a total return on investment of 8.04 for every dollar spent.
There are four proofs of how we defied the law of diminishing returns and
strengthened our Australia Day crusade year after year:
1. Stickiness of the creative idea
2. Spreadability of the message via PR
3. Retailer Support
4. Copying is a great form of flattery

1. The stickiness of the idea
Consumer tracking showed strong consumer interest and engagement in
the Australia Day TVCs. The 2007, 2008, and 2009 campaigns were all
highly involving, distinctive and interesting compared to most TVCs
measured by Millward Brown.
Furthermore, Millward Brown research shows that all our TVCs had strong
branding - higher than the Australian norm for advertising - consequently
making Lamb s position as our national dish on our national day very clear.

Talkability of the campaign was more than double the Millward Brown Australia
Norms.
Lamb messages can be found in places where no other advertiser has been
before.

2. Spreadability of the message via PR
Media Monitors evaluation of the media editorial exposure these
campaigns have attracted is below with some PR examples.
Year Value of additional media exposure in
advertising equivalent dollars
Audience / Circulation
2007 $4.9m 85,077,583
2008 $5m without Australian Open serves;
$6.3m with
71,094,277/105,433,859
2009 $3m 50,504,520

3. Retailer Support
The increased demand year on year leading to Australia Day resulted in
reports of butchers and supermarkets running out of Lamb.
- Quotes from the Butchers -
2007
“For the week we were about 50 per cent up. On the Thursday we sold nearly a normal week’s worth of Lamb. Sales
were on all cuts – it all went. Customers started panicking and they bought everything we had.” Moo Baa Meats
“People were walking into the shop and seeing the posters and buying lamb. A lot of lamb cutlets sold, but we actually sold every
bit of lamb. We weren’t left with anything.” Southern Cross Meats
“Customers were very aware of the campaign, and that the effect was absolutely obvious. There was a huge increase in lamb
volume, up 50% in the week of Australia Day, and not just in sales of BBQ cuts but in leg sales as well.” Cornehls and Blackburn
Butchers
“It was a great campaign that customers were aware of with really strong sales of lamb, and not just BBQ cuts, the roasts went
“beserk” and overall volume was up at least 20%.” The Tender Meat Specialist
2008
“My customers said “I better keep Sam happy, chuck in a Lamb leg as well”. I sold an extra 40 lambs on top of my normal 45.”
Weir’s Butchery
“All 3 stores sold out of lamb over the weekend after stocking up throughout the week.” Harris Farm
“A 25% increase which was the biggest week for lamb sales I’ve ever seen.” Artie Vella
2009
“A fantastic campaign, our sales of Lamb were ridiculous! We were running out of Lamb chops to sell and our customers just
wanted to have something Lamb. In the end we started cutting our legs of Lamb into chops to keep our customers happy. By the end
of the day we had no Lamb left at all. Overall we sold about double what we would normally sell and could have sold more.”
Springfield Butchers
“We were expecting Sunday to be extremely busy for Australia Day but our Monday was just as good. This was the busiest long
weekend for a long time! We sold out of Lamb by lunch time on Monday. We sold an extra 35 Lambs on top of the 70 per week we
normally sell (a 50% increase in Lamb for the week).” Creative Meats
“I think it was a worthwhile exercise, having the Sam campaign. We plastered his face all over the store and it got people talking. It
definitely influenced Lamb sales.” Hillies Meats
“We opened on Australia Day, the campaign was incredibly successful and our turnover doubled on the day! Thanks to the posters
people were buying the cuts that were featured and sold every Lamb cuts we had in stock. We normally sell 15 Lambs per week and
over the campaign period used an extra 7 carcases per week (30% increase).” Freshwater Butchery
Woolworths feedback
The week leading into Australia Day is clearly the biggest lamb sales week of the year for Woolworths. In fact since the beginning of
2007 the three highest weeks sales of Lamb for Woolworths have been Australia Day 07, 08 & 09.
Coles feedback
The Australia Day Lamb event has become the biggest single Lamb event for Coles over recent years and is strongly supported by
the industry campaign.
The week leading up to Australia Day this year (2009) was the highest Lamb trading week ever for Coles with record sales and
volumes processed around the nation.
The increase in Lamb sales for Coles was substantial during this year’s Australia Day campaign compared to last year. This was on
top of record sales achieved in the previous two years.

Our retailers and food service got behind us and staged their own Australia
Day events using our collateral.

4. Copying is a great form of flattery
One strategy for many advertisers is - copying what works. And that is
essentially what other brands have been doing - Lamby-backing on the
success of our campaign. Even chicken wanted to be like Lamb.
The total additional media exposure Lamb received from other advertisers
(including Vegemite and Blue Tongue Beer) has been calculated at $794K
(Source: Universal McCann).
The stickiness of the creative idea, the spreadability of the message via PR,
the strong retailer support and the extra noise from copycats strengthened our
Australia Day year on year.

DISCOUNTING OF OTHER FACTORS
Increasing competitor activity
Pork has become more active and has run BBQ activity in
January, predominately POS.
Changes in annual consumer expenditure and long term consumer
perceptions are also a result of other Lamb activity throughout the year
(Spring and Mother s Day) – however, our investment in these
campaigns remained stable or declined in the years 2007-2009.
Halo effect from other campaigns: MLA runs an umbrella Red meat:
Feel good campaign, but expenditure has declined since 2006.
Product quality – Lamb quality continues to improve incrementally with
production advances, but this is a constant.
Retail promotions: Retailers increasingly run their own lamb
promotions around Australia day, which help increase category value.
However, the increase in these promotion is testament to the Australia
Day lamb campaign s success and longevity.
No change in distribution
No change in product development
No change in packaging
No new flavour
CONCLUSION
The continued investment in Australia Day, the team enthusiasm and a strong
belief in the power of breakthrough creative work, has delivered outstanding
results for Lamb.
Between 2007-2009 the advertising idea and the media placement are
responsible for generating $29.3 million incremental revenue and a total return
on investment of $8.04 for every dollar spent. The old rule of diminishing
returns well and truly broken.
We are most proud of the fact that our campaign was beneficial to our key
stakeholders: our retailers & farmers.

Effies 2008 - MLA

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

Similar to Effies 2008 - MLA

Similar to Effies 2008 - MLA (16)

Effies 2008 - MLA