Lobster, Seafood Marketing Promotions Stepped Up
Promotional efforts to help drive market demand for Atlantic lobster and seafood have been stepped up in recent months to try and counter the impact of COVID-19 on the industry.
“To help drive demand as the world recovers from the pandemic, we are implementing our LCC marketing strategy and working with provincial and federal governments on many promotional projects for lobster and Atlantic Canadian seafood in general,” said Geoff Irvine, executive director of the Lobster Council of Canada (LCC).
“In general, the lobster market has been re-established at new market prices for whole in shell, tails and meat and live lobster,” said Irvine.
Recovery is “ongoing slowly” in the food service industry, beginning with Asia then Europe and finally North America, said Irvine. “Restaurant operators are coming to grips with challenges around social distancing and the dining experience for customers continues to evolve.”
Sales in the retail/e-commerce channels “are steady as most consumers worldwide continue to buy seafood to prepare at home,” said Irvine.
While commercial air freight with the major carriers remains very difficult, there are charter opportunities that are increasing every week from most airports that helped live shippers get product to Asia in April and May and now to Europe, said Irvine.
“All harvesters and buyers have been working together to move lobster into processing, live holding or the live market through the spring season.”
One innovative project organized and implemented through the Seafood Sector Export Team (SSET) is a pilot Virtual Trade Show, slated for June 24 and 25.
“Since several in-person activities have been cancelled due to a global pandemic, this has resulted in lost opportunities for Atlantic Canadian companies to meet with buyers to promote their products. This online event will allow business meetings to take place in a virtual setting,” said Irvine.
Funded by the Atlantic Trade and Investment Growth Strategy, a partnership between the Government of Canada and the four Atlantic provincial governments, 46 Atlantic Canadian companies were confirmed to participate in the trade show as well as Canadian Trade Commissioners and buyers, said Irvine.
With a focus on North and South America and Asian markets, the Virtual Trade Show features pre-event training, a virtual platform, including a customized booth for each exhibiting company, additional virtual rooms including an auditorium, resource room, chat room, an information booth in the lobby, the opportunity for live chat between companies and buyers with built-in translation, the opportunity to showcase products, videos and share PDF documents with buyers.
The Nova Scotia government is conducting a live lobster promotion in China between June 10 and July 1. Working with an in-market consultant in China, e-commerce and retail promotions were to be organized. Live streaming on e-commerce platforms, prize draws, key opinion leaders, cooking demonstrations and product education, highlighting the positive attributes of Canadian lobster from Nova Scotia were part of the promotion.
The New Brunswick government has also been promoting lobsters in China in co-operation with Global Affairs Canada.
Launched on May 12 by Deputy Consul General Jean-Christian Brilliant from Shanghai, the live broadcast of the event reached over 30 million and was picked up by CCTV national news channels with more than 100 million viewers. The online and offline retail promotion of frozen whole cooked lobster and live lobster from New Brunswick with three Chinese retailers who have more than 3,300 locations also featured in store cooking demonstrations.
The LCC is in year one of a three-year program featuring marketing and promotion, market intelligence and market access. Funded by the Atlantic Fisheries Fund and lobster sector stakeholders, year one activities in the Long-Term Value Strategy for Canadian Lobster are focused on a website relaunch, content development and social media activation with paid and organic posts encouraging Canadians to eat lobster, trade information materials, a chef ambassador program, market intelligence and expert partnership development in Europe and China.
The LCC is also organizing and planning a Virtual Export Café to take place in October and November with a focus on mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and South Korea.
The café will incorporate the use of a computer application or in-market consultants to facilitate Business to Business virtual meetings between qualified importers and Atlantic Canadian exporters.
Working with four online and offline retailers in South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong, the LCC is also planning retail promotions in September, October and November. With a focus on new and existing exporters from Atlantic Canada, in store promotions, social media, media events, marketing materials and sampling events will be part of the promotion.
