Remarkable results from a fall Eat Seafood America! (ESA!) pilot campaign showed for every $1 spent on ads driving consumers to buy seafood at retail there was a measurable $9 increase in seafood purchases, achieving an overall 800% return on investment. Seafood Nutrition Partnership (SNP) is excited to announce that this pilot campaign reached 4 million households and outperformed benchmark campaigns. Showcasing how marketing seafood featuring its “healthy halo” can be effective and trackable, the digital pilot campaign increased seafood sales and consumers reported increased consumption and intention to cook more seafood by three times.
The ESA! initiative targeting American consumers has generated more than 1.6 billion impressions to date with the goals to make purchasing and cooking seafood easy, break down barriers, drive awareness, and impact consumer behavior change. These efforts led to a measurable increase in seafood purchases and consumption. This SNP-led pilot campaign has the building blocks for a national seafood marketing campaign in the future. Efforts are underway to secure funding to scale this initiative into a national seafood campaign.
“The Eat Seafood America! consumer campaign is a fantastic example of how using a generic seafood campaign model focused on public health can produce tangible and trackable results. Imagine the positive impacts to the health and well-being of more Americans if we can scale this campaign,” said Linda Lai Cornish, President of Seafood Nutrition Partnership.
Examples of ads with consumer-tested messages that drove increased seafood sales through Seafood Nutrition Partnership’s Eat Seafood America! digital pilot campaign.
The Seafood4Health Action Coalition, a group of more than 50 non-profit and government organizations convened by SNP, collaboratively created the marketing messaging for ESA!. Together, the Coalition has shared more than 3,500 posts across social media.
One reason the ESA! campaign has been successful is due to SNP putting a laser focus on the consumer and their changing needs throughout the pandemic. Since launching ESA!, SNP has surveyed more than 10,000 American consumers to understand their motivators and how COVID-19, the economy, and other factors have impacted their food buying and eating decisions.
“By understanding where consumers are seeking out meal inspiration, how and where they are shopping, and what education is needed to empower them to eat more seafood, we can develop the right materials and target them on the right platforms,” said Andrea Albersheim, Director of Communications for SNP. One example of this is a sharp increase in the number of people seeking meal inspiration on YouTube, where SNP videos have generated more than 4 million impressions. In the surveys, consumers who report seeing the ESA! messaging are 2 to 3 times more likely to have increased their seafood consumption recently.
Grocers H-E-B and Raley’s partnered with SNP on this digital pilot campaign and amplified the health and nutritional benefits of seafood with their customers, leading to increased seafood consumption in their store regions.
The Eat Seafood America! pilot campaign leverages SNP’s experience with consumer marketing, its partners experience, along with proven marketing strategies and tactics utilized by other successful food campaigns. Other commodity campaigns have annual marketing budgets ranging from $25MM to $300MM, and seafood does not currently have funds of this level to market the category. The National Seafood Council Task Force was formed in April 2021 to help secure federal funding to support a National Seafood Marketing Campaign.
To support the ESA! campaign, contact Linda Lai Cornish at lcornish@seafoodnutrition.org.
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