2003 Grilling Campaign Being Built on Strength of 2002 Program

An aggressive campaign to move more beef during summer 2003 will be conducted through the beef checkoff’s Summer Grilling promotion.  The intent of the promotion, aimed at increasing demand for all cuts of beef, including undervalued cuts from the chuck and round, is to convince current grill users to grill beef more often.

The integrated retail marketing program, which includes radio advertising, in-store merchandising and strong public relations activities will be conducted on behalf of the Cattlemen’s Beef Board by NCBA and state beef councils.  Extensive manufacturer and retailer tie-ins will significantly expand the campaign.

The 15-week 2002 campaign set out to position steak as “King of the Grill,” and succeeded in increasing beef grilling cut pound sales in the seven original target markets by 10 percent, and dollar sales of beef grilling cuts by 7 percent.  The majority of growth in beef grilling cut sales happened during non-holiday periods, when sales sometimes slip due to lack of feature support.

Public relations initiatives for the program resulted in 24 print placements in retail trade publications and 377 television and radio placements.  Total media impressions for the public relations effort totaled 374 million.

Thirty-five state beef councils executed complementary Summer Grilling promotions during the campaign, while more than 6,000 grocery stores used 3,700 floor graphics, 109,000 cart signs, 800 window posters and millions of brochures and recipes.