The Danish Bacon and Meat Council (DBMC) had a packed 2006. Below are just some of the highlights from the year:

Advertising the Danish ‘sizzle’

In March, we kicked off a major advertising campaign – worth £1.2 million – designed to ensure consumers look for the Danish ‘sizzle’ when buying bacon. As well as targeting our core market of 28-44 year old, ABC1 food-loving consumers, we decided to tap into men’s love of bacon via magazines such as GQ and Men’s Health.

The campaign, which ran for six months in all, was delivered through advertising in national press, glossy consumer magazines and an eye-catching poster campaign on the London underground. We were also delighted to work again with actors Mark Heap (Green Wing) and Jessica Stevenson (The Royle Family) who sparkled in our radio advertising. Meanwhile, our ‘Breakfast Transformer’ email marketing campaign added another trophy to the cabinet – this time from the Food and Beverage Creative Excellence Awards.

We are currently evaluating the results of the campaign, but we hope to maintain and build on the 90 per cent brand recognition rate that Danish currently enjoys.

Promoting with our trade partners

One of our key tasks is to work closely with all sectors of the trade to make it as easy as possible for their customers to find the Danish ‘sizzle’ when they buy bacon. This work is undertaken in close co-operation with the whole of the Danish industry in the UK..

We’ve also been delivering additional clout to sales by supplying in-store posters and leaflets and providing point-of-sale material to independent butchers to encourage shoppers to buy gammon joints for Christmas. And if that wasn’t enough, all our activity has been underlined by a busy features and news story programme in the trade press, to ensure that all sectors of the trade were reminded of the key strengths of the Danish brand and our advertising plans.

We were delighted to see that ‘Danish’ increased its share of the pre-packed bacon rasher market, over the year as a whole, to around 30%, according to TNS Worldpanel, thus consolidating its position as Britain’s leading bacon brand.

Bringing balance to industry debate

As in previous years, we were often called upon to explain the Danish position on a wide-ranging number of issues from animal welfare, to food safety and the environment.

The Danish industry has world-leading credentials in many areas of pig production – and this is borne out by the hard facts from the well documented performance of Danish producers in many critical areas. Information from the national Salmonella Control Programme confirms continuing success in reducing levels of salmonella throughout the production chain. The VETSTAT database confirmed that, alongside a high animal health level maintained in Danish pig herds, use of antibiotic medicines by Danish producers is significantly lower than all other major pig producing countries.

But for us, it’s also important that a degree of balance and objectivity is brought to some of the public arguments about the pig industry and meat industry in general. It’s perhaps inevitable that people latch onto sound-bites, but these don’t always paint a full picture.

It’s for that reason that we sought to bring perspective to the emerging topic of ‘food miles’ in the Meat Trades Journal, The Grocer and other publications. On a number of occasions, we also found it necessary to challenge the media on what we saw as unfair representation of our industry.

Many of these issues are ongoing, particularly in the area of the food industry’s impact on the environment, and in this coming year, we will be looking to increase our activity to ensure that Danish views are represented.

News from Denmark

As part of the newly-formed Danish Meat Association, DBMC is the key link between the Danish co-operative system and Danish producers based in the UK.

We believe that it’s essential for our key stakeholders to not only hear, but see for themselves, how the Danish industry is achieving ever higher standards of production, whether that’s via new technologies, production or improvements to safety and quality standards. This openness and transparency can only reap benefits in the future.

We continued to create opportunities for many interested parties to meet and question our experts and see at first hand the infrastructure and facilities that the Danish industry has to offer.

Investing in the future was also a key theme for our industry last year. We believe that it’s critical for the future of the meat industry as a whole to promote a collaborative and sharing approach that is based on learning and investment, particularly in skills the development of young people. Promotion of initiatives such as the provision of subsidised training courses at the Meat Trades College in Roskilde help new employees grow their career and bring new skills back to the UK.

DBMC remained an enthusiastic supporter of encouraging best practice in the industry. Once again, Danish Bacon was prominent among the sponsors of the 2006 Meat Trades Journal, ‘Supermeat’ and ‘Butchers Shop of the Year’ Awards, as well as Meat and Poultry News, ‘Meat Industry Awards’.