Back in March at the 2025 Seafood Expo North America (SENA) in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A., the Global Shrimp Council officially launched a new worldwide campaign promoting shrimp. The Happy Protein campaign highlights the nutritional value of shrimp as well as people’s positive associations with the shellfish.
Miguel Barcenas, who the Global Shrimp Council brought on as a strategy and marketing consultant to develop the campaign, sat down with SeafoodSource at SENA to discuss all things Happy Protein.
SeafoodSource: Why should people be eating more shrimp?
Barcenas: Shrimp is a great source of protein. In conjunction with the Global Shrimp Forum, we just conducted research that shows that shrimp is full of positive associations. People love it. People go to restaurants and enjoy it. When they go to the beach, they enjoy it. From time to time, they cook it at home, but we would like to think of shrimp as a protein that is another social protein that can go on top of beef and poultry.
We want people to feel good more often by eating shrimp more often.
SeafoodSource: Why does shrimp need a global campaign? Why does it need international collaboration?
Barcenas: We are the Global Shrimp Council, and we are comprised of independent importers, exporters, producers, and industry suppliers from around the globe. We have some of the top names in the industry and over fifty-something members right now. They produce for the local market, export to global markets. So the idea is, why should we limit [the campaign] to one market? Our goal is to go to at least four markets 16 in the next two years, obviously starting with the U.S. and probably moving from there to Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America. Why? Because the sensation we have is that everybody loves shrimp, but they are not eating as often as they should and could. That’s why we’re trying to tell them of the sweet spot between the functional benefits and emotional benefits of eating shrimp. It’s full of proteins, it’s low in cholesterol, it’s a great source of vitamins. At the same time, it’s great to cook, great to enjoy.
SeafoodSource: Tell us a little bit about The Happy Protein campaign.
Barcenas: The Happy Protein campaign was something we developed along with Hopscoth, our agency that is based in France. They are present in 26 countries around the world, and they’ve been doing a pretty good job with other products in the fresh industry, from avocados to produce to – in this case, obviously – shrimp. The idea is that by having a single message worldwide – that shrimp is a happy protein and a great source of protein – along with great memories, we can put together a campaign that can go global. Happy Protein is something that you know resonates around the world, because everybody in the world enjoys and thinks of shrimp as a moment that is very different than eating, for instance, chicken. I mean, the memories of chicken are – I’m not saying they’re bad, but it’s not necessarily a festive moment. Beef is great but also is not related to a festive moment. In our case, it’s juicy shrimp, juicy good, juicy happiness.
SeafoodSource: You’re well known for your role with the Avocados from Mexico campaign. As an outsider to the shrimp industry, what did you see that indicated a story was ready to be told?
Barcenas: I worked for twenty-something years at PepsiCo, Procter and Gamble, and many packaged good companies. What I found out is I wanted to move to a territory that is trending over the last few years. People want to eat better. People want to have fresh products. People want to have non-processed food on their tables for their family.
I started supporting the avocado business 13 years ago, and we had an association that had 90 packing houses and 33,000 growers. We’re just starting with the shrimp sector now. We have 50 members. We’re planning to grow even bigger than that. So the idea is the same – associations can have collective brands that everybody stands for behind them, and at the same time they can promote their own brand along with the collective brand. In this case, ‘Happy Protein, Global Shrimp’ is going to be the standard, underneath their own name, as we did with Avocados from Mexico.
SeafoodSource: Each company will have their own mini campaign within the larger campaign, right?
Barcenas: Exactly. They can benefit from their own efforts and present themselves as proud supporters and owners of the Happy Protein brand.
SeafoodSource: What does the campaign entail materially? Is it advertisements? Is it providing these materials to companies?
Barcenas: We have a dual objective. One is B2B, which is our members – we need everybody in the industry to know that they are supporters of this global campaign, so obviously they are recognized for that.
And from B2C, which is the consumers, we want to have a very ambitious plan. We want to start with digital, because obviously we can go global right away. We want to continue with retail activation, restaurant activation, influencers, so everybody that can talk about the goodness of shrimp can be part of it. Eventually, the dream is to be in the Super Bowl. It’s not going to happen tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. In the avocado world, it took us almost 17 years to go to the Super Bowl. I hope with shrimp we can go faster than that, but imagine us in the Super Bowl with a Happy Protein global shrimp campaign that everybody can enjoy. That would be fantastic.
SeafoodSource: With your previous campaigns, especially with the avocado campaign, you’ve talked about the need for these companies to emphasize sustainability and corporate responsibility. Is that playing a part in The Happy Protein campaign?
Barcenas: Our intention, basically, is to promote shrimp independently – independently of origin, of a way of producing it. But at the same time, we want reputable companies behind this important trademark. Our members will have to go through certain standards to be part of it, but our intention is not to become a seal of quality. No, we want people to know shrimp is great, shrimp is good for you no matter where it comes from. No matter what the production source, it’s great and you can enjoy it many ways throughout the year.
SeafoodSource: Can you tell us a little about what went into the design of this campaign?
Barcenas: This is not a campaign that is going to compete with any other campaigns. Seafood in general is great, and it’s part of the same trend of fresh products, eating non-processed food. We are not competing – we are adding. The more people think of seafood – salmon, shrimp, oysters – the better. So this is not to compete with them. This is to add to the movement to eat more fresh, in this case seafood products, and in this particular case, shrimp.
SeafoodSource: What does the rollout look like in the next few months to a year?
Barcenas: As I said, we have 50 members right now. We need more, and this is an industry that has thousands of potential members. We want everybody to join, and the reason we want them to join is that they will have recognition among the industry, either as suppliers or importers or exporters. We’re going to claim that these are the people that are behind this fantastic campaign. Also, they will be able to put our stamp on their products and packaging. We will hopefully have retail activations, in-store execution, so they will be part of it. Our call for all the non-members today is please join us. We have several tiers of membership, and you can be a producer, exporter, importer, or industry supplier. Come join us in this great, great, great campaign.
SeafoodSource: Is there a threshold you’re looking to hit in terms of membership that allows you to put this campaign where you want it to be?
Barcenas: Right now, our first goal in the next two to three years is 200 members, because 200 members takes us to the USD 3 million to USD 4 million (EUR 2.7 million to EUR 3.7 million) campaign that really starts making an impact. What we’re doing is we’re going to be in Boston (at SENA), we’re going to be in Barcelona (at Seafood Expo Global), we’re going to be in Utrecht (for the Global Shrimp Forum), and hopefully we’ll have more members. Please join us today.
