MEAT & Livestock Australia’s lamb marketing campaign ‘You Never Lamb Alone’ has been named Mumbrella’s TV Ad of the Year for 2016.

It is the third consecutive year that a MLA lamb marketing campaign has been awarded the accolade.

And MLA research has shown that domestic growth in lamb demand has been running in parallel with marketing activities and campaigns.

The prestigious and coveted Mumbrella Awards celebrated the best, bravest and brightest work across the media and marketing industries. The 2017 awards were held in Sydney last week, with more than 560 entries across 30 categories.

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MLA’s 2016 spring lamb campaign developed by The Monkeys agency, utilised the established “You Never Lamb Alone” platform to highlight a message of lamb helping to celebrate the diversity of modern Australia, regardless of race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, age or ability.

MLA said the advertisement attracted 6.1 million views across multiple channels and was shared over 41 thousand times on social media. Importantly, sales results during the campaign showed a 5.3 percent value share increase versus the prior four-week period – while 48pc of consumers agreed they were “more likely to eat lamb” as a result of seeing the ad, MLA said.

MLA group marketing manager Andrew Howie said industry recognition for MLA’s lamb marketing under the “You Never Lamb Alone” banner, and the diversity message of recent years, was made even more pleasing with the positive figures recently released around the volume and value of lamb sales.

He said recent data showed the average volume sales of lamb for 2015 and 2016 was higher than the previous five years – which had been relatively stable – while the domestic value of the lamb market had reached record highs in 2015 and 2016.

“While these awards are welcome, in an increasingly competitive domestic market, what matters most is driving demand and consumer preference for lamb in Australia and promoting returns for levy payers.

“The figures show that demand for lamb has increased in recent years and this increase runs parallel with MLA’s most recent marketing activities,” Mr Howie said.

“MLA’s consistent marketing message around lamb has been it’s the meat that brings Australians together – ensuring we are making lamb relevant to a diverse modern Australia.”

Mr Howie said MLA received strong support from the sheep industry, particularly the Sheepmeat Council of Australia, which allowed it to deliver bold and effective marketing campaigns that sell more lamb.

“Our marketing campaigns are informed by consumer insights and data, as well as learnings from past campaigns – and we will continue to look for improvements across all aspects of our marketing business to create advertising that works and delivers results for producers and the industry,” he said.

Source: MLA.