The Norwegian Seafood Export Council recently launched its second summer marketing effort, which runs the gamut from in-store materials to print, radio and TV advertising. This year, the campaign focuses on promoting salmon for the summer in France to remind consumers that seafood can be grilled.
Johan Kvalheim, the council’s director in France, told SeafoodSource at the European Seafood Exposition on Tuesday that sales generally decline in the summer months because families spend most of their time grilling food and consumers forget that seafood is an option for grilling.
The TV ads are one-minute spots shot in Norway featuring a Norwegian chef who presents recipes. There will be 38 separate recipes, with 52 broadcasts that will air on France’s second largest TV channel on weekends through the end of July, before consumers go on vacation. The in-store promotions include scratch tickets in which consumers can win trips to Norway, samples, videos and posters and demonstrations.
The council first launched the promotion last year, and it resulted in an increase in salmon sales. However, Kvalheim said there are challenges with salmon prices increasing, and this year the main goal is to boost consumer awareness of Norwegian seafood in general. With high salmon prices, just maintaining sales in terms of volume during the summer will be satisfying, said Kvalheim.
The council is also focusing on promoting its salmon to the growing sushi market. According to Christian Chramer, the council’s director of communications, Norway’s salmon is perfect for sushi because it can be delivered so quickly — even to Japan the product can be shipped in just 36 hours. Sushi is becoming so popular that Kvalheim said sushi deliveries now outpace pizza deliveries in France.
Kvalheim also said after the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, sushi restaurants were heavily promoting that their salmon came from Norway to reduce fears of radiation contamination.
