Meat & Livestock Australia proves nothing celebrates Australian diversity like Lamb

This September, Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA) is launching its new Spring Lamb campaign in Australia that positions lamb as the meat that doesn’t discriminate. The campaign has been created by The Monkeys, Sydney.

Building on the long established We Love Our Lamb platform, the integrated activity taps into the central role lamb plays in celebrating the face of modern Australia and bringing everyone together, no matter their race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, age or ability.

VIEW THE SPOT

The content cuts to the chase and addresses the fact that Australian’s are a welcoming and inclusive society that loves lamb, by featuring a cast of Aussies from all walks of life, coming together over a lamb barbecue.

Says Andrew Howie, group marketing manager at MLA: “What it means to be Australian is constantly evolving. Sadly, the true face of Australia isn’t being reflected on our screens and in the media, so lamb decided to do something about it.

“Aussies from all walks of life love their lamb, no matter our ethnicity, religious beliefs or sexual orientation. We all celebrate over lamb so this spring we’re getting everyone in the room.”

Shot in one take by director Paul Middleditch, there are appearances from indigenous Australians including Olympian Cathy Freeman, National Rugby League player Greg Inglis and model Samantha Harris. Other Aussies present include Greek-transgender comedian Jordan Raskopoulos, established television presenter Luke Jacobz, rising Bengali-Australian actor Arka Das and a long list of Australian extras, who prove ‘lamb is the ultimate cross- cultural protein’.

Staying true to inclusivity, the campaign will use in-language social media posts to tailor its communications to languages other than English for the first time. The 90-second content will be shared across Facebook and YouTube, and the lamb message will also be spread across WeChat and Weibo to further engage Australia’s Chinese community.

MLA harnessed UM’s proprietary tool DIMPLE to gain a genuine insight into the social fabric of our cultural neighbourhoods and key ethnic groups, and used this data to inform a multi-language News Limited Community Press partnership and high-impact OOH digital display activity. Focusing on areas with diverse backgrounds, it will spread unique messages linking lamb to diversity around sexuality, culture and language with Arabic, Vietnamese, Mandarin and Cantonese translations. The OOH will also speak to the sight impaired community with specific braille placements in key metro sites.

Taking the message to the table is a partnership with start-up platform Feed Up. A month of ‘Lamb Get Togethers’ on this pop-up dining community will literally bring Aussies together over lamb. Chef and lamb lover George Calombaris and a series of influencers will host their events and spread the message across their channels, as they encourage people to get involved.

PR will spread the message of lamb unifying all Australians across earned media, showing how different cultures embrace, share and consume the meat across the country. Research and bespoke tours will display lamb’s cross-cultural role here.

Below the line materials will inspire shoppers pre-store, via catalogue and magazine placements. In store, driving accentuated appetite appeal during the campaign, there will be recipes and visually engaging POS pieces at shelf and on-pack. Exclusive POS suites have also been developed for butchers and grocery stores to cater to their shoppers.

Lamb lovers can view the content on the We Love Our Lamb Facebook and YouTube page.

The Monkeys Sydney is one of Australia’s top creative agencies, having won Campaign Brief Australia’s Agency of the Year title this year. Their work on the MLA account has been very high over the past 18 months. Here are 3 of their latest campaigns.

VIEW MLA “LAMB: RICHIE’S BBQ” SPOT

VIEW MLA “OPERATION BOOMERANG” SPOT

VIEW MLA “THE TRINITY EXPERIMENT” SPOT

MLA Group Marketing Manager: Andrew Howie

US mechanical license courtesy of Carl Fischer Music