REPEAT purchases of Australian lamb and beef have been achieved by a multi-channel digital campaign by Meat & Livestock Australia in the United States of America.

Meat & Livestock Australia ran a series of virtual events over winter in the ‘Make a moment’ campaign to inspire and educate consumers on how they could elevate their dining experience at any moment by serving Australian lamb and grass-fed beef.

MLA said traditionally, there is a seasonal spike in interest and sales of lamb and grass-fed beef throughout winter in the US.

The campaign leveraged this to position True Aussie Beef and Lamb as a go-to culinary resource to increase cooking confidence, promote the ease of incorporating these into special occasion meal repertoires and to show shoppers where they can purchase each product.

MLA said Australian lamb and grass-ed beef are very small players in the US meat retail business, making up around 2 percent of shelf space, with this lack of availability creating a pain point for shoppers looking for Australian product.

To overcome these challenges, MLA’s US team ran a series of mini virtual events including cooking classes and inspirational event-centric cooking videos, to boost awareness and purchases of Aussie red meat. To achieve success in the campaign, an aggressive SEO and social media campaign was run and a digital media partnership with FeedFeed was established.

A carefully selected macro-influencer party and a public relations program were also integrated to drive interest in the events, increase social and media chatter about True Aussie Beef and Lamb and position them as a go-to resource for consumers, MLA said.

Across channels, the campaign delivered 46.8 million impressions, had a reach of 36.5 million, with 1.4 million engagements and 1.2 million new fans.

MLA said in parallel to this, a nano-influencer ‘army’ of 700 people was also deployed to understand how user-generated content can drive familiarity with Australian grass-fed beef and lamb, including where to buy it, and to motivate people within the influencer’s tight-knit following to purchase it.

The nano-influencers’ achievements included 812 posts generated about Australian grass-fed beef and lamb. Also 50pc of those surveyed had re-purchased Australian grass-fed beef and 30pc Australian lamb within a month of participation, and 62pc made a recommendation for Australian grass-fed beef and 48pc for lamb that resulted in purchases by their followers since participating.