Lamb has brought Australians together for decades. The brand championing what’s at the heart of Australian unity. But the last few years have dulled Australia’s spirit, with little to unite us.

‘Biblical’ challenges of drought, bush fires, Covid pestilence, mice plagues, and devastating floods have kicked Australians in the guts. The constant waves of negativity battering our spirit and putting a dampener on our sense of unity and optimism. As the nation entered a new year there was a desperate need to shake off the negativity.

Lamb’s brief was to create a celebration of Australian unity by reminding the entire country it’s our unique diversity and easy-going warmth that makes us at our best as a nation. With three key objectives:

First, get the nation talking about the campaign, to drive Lamb’s fame.

Next, get more Australians eating lamb to grow household penetration.

To ultimately increase volume sales over summer.

At a time when Australians are struggling to define what it means to be ‘Australian’, ironically, many find it very easy to define what is ‘Un-Australian’. A term that’s become weaponised and abused by politicians, the media and citizens alike, to the point of ridiculousness, it’s overuse has rendered almost everything, and every Australian ‘Un-Australian’.

To revive Australia’s spirit of unity, Meat and Livestock Australia's summer campaign challenges the overuse of the term, instead of condemning ‘Un-Australian’ behaviour it celebrates our collective ‘Un-Australian-ness’. Taking the power away from a divisive word and uniting Australians around a renewed identity. By redefining a weaponised term, Australian Lamb reminded Australians that our collective differences are a great cause for celebration not division.

To drive talkability around the ad launch, we created a campaign with inherent news value by revealing the people, places and things Aussies deemed most “Un-Australian” in 2022.

Taking aim at cultural moments, uniquely Aussie habits and classic dinnertime disagreements we conducted research to spark discussion and debate around what makes something “Un-Australian” in line with the campaign launch. The results, which showed everything from admitting to not knowing who Shane Warne is (47%), having a wedding on Grand Final Day (44%) and supporting New Zealand (44%) being called out as “Un-Australian”, were then pitched to the media alongside the campaign TVC.

To drive maximum coverage on launch week, we executed a three-phased approach:

National news and broadcast media were offered exclusive interviews with campaign spokespeople, to go live in the 24 hours after launch

Distributed the news to communications trade media immediately after the first airing of the ad, ensuring the news landed in consumer journalist’s inboxes at launch

Followed with a wide-reaching PR announcement the following morning, including an exclusive appearance from Australian Lambassador, Sam Kekovich, on leading National breakfast show Sunrise.

The result? Widespread coverage in almost every national/metro newspaper and all major TV networks, with over 900 pieces of editorial secured within the first 24 hours.

We brought the nation together with lamb through iconic Aussie environments, and moments. It would’ve been “Un-Australian” not to.

Media-

Overdelivered on planned long form paid media views by 141%

The most-viewed summer lamb ad of all time. Our goal to beat the record of 2.5M long-form views in 12 months was surpassed in just 12 days reaching 3M views (on YouTube alone). Dethroning 2016’s Operation Boomerang with Lee Lin Chin.

The campaign contributed significantly to annual metrics:

Target Audience Outcomes -

Summer lamb campaign delivery increased Spontaneous Awareness +3%, Consideration (T2B) +2%, Association on ‘is worth paying a bit more for’ +2% (Kantar Brand Health Tracker).

Business-

Lamb outpaced the fresh meat category over the campaign period by growing 7.7% in Value and 11.8% in Volume. This was largely due to a significant uplift in household penetration, increasing to 38.7% penetration (+2.2pp).

The campaign drove business results with figures showing YoY increases in value and volume (as above) and share (+1.4%) (NielsenIQ Homescan™).

Sales outpaced the category, and support from retailers shone through…

“Lamb Sales grew in January/Feb by high single digits v 2 Years Ago (not relevant to LY . . . ), driven by Midloins, Legs and Job Buys as well as Cutlets. . . . We had our best ever sales week- in Jan and saw great growth in Market share driven by avg visits up & growth in Penetration.” – Lamb Category Manager, Woolworths