EDMONTON – Cattle ranchers in Saskatchewan, Manitoba and northern Alberta won’t see the Beef Information Centre’s new television campaign launched Sept. 22-26.
But the centre will ask those ranchers for more money to spend on advertising.
In efforts to get the most bang for its buck, the centre is focusing its $3.2 million advertising budget in the more heavily populated areas of Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, southern Ontario and Calgary. In those markets, audiences will see ads touting the convenience of fiesta steak on the top-rated TV show Seinfeld.
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The new strategy comes in the wake of disappointing numbers from the centre’s 1996-97 campaign, which drew a 42 percent awareness rating, the lowest rating for the centre’s advertising awareness in seven years.
“We were disappointed, but they weren’t a catastrophe,” said Alberta rancher Kim Hanson, chair of the centre’s board of directors. “The people that saw (last year’s) ad liked it. It was a recipe ad, which is a hard type of ad to make it really exciting. But, of the people who saw that ad, one in six tried the recipe, which is a really high response rate.”
Past success
The centre blames the low awareness rating on a change in advertising focus. In the past, beef campaigns have featured well-known athletes touting the healthiness of red meat.
“Last year’s campaign was the start of a new strategy, so you have a certain building. Last year was the first step in a campaign focused on convenience.
“Beef was not perceived as convenient enough or quick enough for consumers,” said Hanson, who runs about 450 cows on 6,000 acres of hilly, tree-covered pasture bordering Waterton National Park in southwestern Alberta.
Carolyn McDonell, the Toronto-based centre’s executive manager, said the beef centre’s consumer awareness peaked at 62 percent in 1995 when the centre’s ads showcased figure skaters Lloyd Eisler and Isabelle Brasseur.
No extra cash
Another and perhaps more contentious explanation for the drop in consumer awareness was a lack of money. For that reason, the centre won’t air commercials in the Maritimes, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and northern Ontario.
As well, this year’s recipe ad is running only on top-rated shows.
To test the effectiveness of the ads, the centre chose not to run the commercials in Edmonton and will later compare sales and consumer reaction to the Calgary market, which is being inundated with heavy television advertising and additional commercials on radio.
Hanson believes the test will prove the need to put more money into advertising and he plans to push for a national checkoff – a fee collected every time a cow is sold – of $1.50, of which 95 cents would go to the centre.
The Alberta Cattle Commission and other provincial cattle groups already have regional checkoffs.
The centre is also facing loss of a key funding source in 1999. The $5.2 million beef industry development fund has provided revenue for the centre since 1994.
“If we don’t find a way to replace that money, there will have to be some very serious cuts in programming in 1999,” he said. “We hope producers will see increasing the checkoff will help market their product, which is pretty small compared to any other industry as a percentage of value.”
