64% of fish consumers see Scottish Quality Salmon's media campaign

64% of medium-to-heavy consumers of fish saw the recent salmon farming advertisements in the Scottish and UK dailies, as well as the Sunday newspapers, states Scottish Quality Salmon (SQS).

Concentrated in a four-week burst of activity and funded by The Crown Estate, SQS estimates that the advertisements reached a total of 3,187,000 medium-to-heavy fish consumers.

“It was our intention to set the record straight with our core target market, by telling them about working practices and standards that are required for members of Scottish Quality Salmon,” commented Brian Simpson, chief executive of Scottish Quality Salmon.

“We believe this has been achieved with medium-to-heavy fish consumers, who are those that spend over £3 per week on fresh fish,” he added.

Significantly, SQS estimates that the advertisements reached a total of 25,322,000 adults, with each person seeing the ads on average 2.4 times. This represents a total of 52% of all adults in the UK.

“The statistics suggest that over 25 million adults viewed the adverts on average 2.4 times, which represents a massive 60.8 million exposures to our positive messages.

“This was a high profile, high impact campaign, with the intention of correcting the messages communicated by those that have tried to discredit salmon farming, whilst reaffirming the advice from the Food Standards Agency that oil-rich fish, such as Scottish Quality Salmon, is a healthy choice,” added Simpson.

In addition to the media advertising element, the campaign also included the following activity:

• 118,000 education leaflets were distributed to consumers via independent fishmonger members of The SQS Club, 10,750 journalists, 58,000 food industry contacts (manufacturers, retailers, fish farming industry and other influencers) and to consumers;
• 2,000 posters were distributed to retailers, The SQS Club and SQS members, and;
• 5,000 postcards were distributed to members of the media and the trade.

Notes to Editors:

1. Scottish Quality Salmon is dedicated to improving the quality and sustainability of salmon farming in Scotland - from feed companies through to salmon smokers and processors - the whole production chain. Membership now represents 65% of the tonnage produced by the Scottish salmon farming industry.

2. The Crown Estate funded the campaign. The advertisements appeared in a concentrated four-week burst of activity from 8th July 2004. The campaign slogan was ‘naturally they’re the best’.

END 4th October 2004

For further information contact either:
Ken Hughes, Communications Executive, Scottish Quality Salmon,
+44 (0)1738 587000 or 07974 173739
Julie Edgar, Communications Director, Scottish Quality Salmon,
+44 (0)1738 587000 or 07899 875151

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