Australia is famous for the BBQ. Australia Day is the biggest BBQ day of the year. The Australia Day Cricket Match is the biggest sporting event of the year, kind of like our Super Bowl. It also marks the biggest sales period for Australian lamb.

In 2015, having decided to move on from one of the longest-running campaigns in Australian advertising, the pressure to perform was on. It wasn't the only thing that was different. For the first time in nearly 50 years, the voice of summer, the commentator Richie Benaud, wasn't going to call the match. While everyone was lamenting how summer would never be the same again, we saw an opportunity.

What was Richie going to do for Australia Day? Having established the brand idea You Never Lamb Alone earlier in the year, we decided to help Richie host an Australia Day BBQ. To set up Richie’s plight we launched with a film in which a lonely Richie invites iconic Australians from history, like Captain “Cooky” Cook and Ned Kelly, to join him for the greatest BBQ of all time. A Facebook competition then gave people the chance to enjoy a BBQ, beer and backyard cricket with Richie on Australia Day by submitting their best impersonation of his iconic voice.

The campaign delivered 854 pieces of coverage across print and TV, including the live cricket coverage on Channel 9, achieving 69,678,025 media impressions; helping to drive a +35.3% sales uplift, up from +19% the previous year for the same period.

The purpose of the campaign was to raise the profile of lamb in the run up to Australia Day. Not only to so it was top of mind when consumers went in-store, but also so retailers (from supermarkets to independent butchers), on whom Meat and Livestock Australia rely, got behind the campaign and promoted lamb during the period.

The primary KPI for the campaign was the number of impressions, with the target set at 25m, with a focus on mass media. The sales target was +20% versus average weekly sales. The benchmarks were set using the results achieved in 2014.

The campaign successfully raised the profile of lamb over the Australia Day sales period.

> Generated 854 pieces of coverage across print, online and TV

> Over 69m media impressions (target was 25m)

> Sales uplift of +35% in the week leading up to Australia Day (target was +20%)

> Sales uplift of +12.5% over entire campaign period, best ever for an Australia Day campaign

The campaign kicked off with a press release sent out to media titles teasing Richie’s involvement in the new campaign. On 9th Jan launched the film launched. To maximize its PR value it featured a cameo from the long-standing lamb spokesperson Sam Kekovich; as well as Richie’s most famous impersonator Billy Birmingham. - known for his comedy production The Twelfth Man.

The Facebook comp culminated in the Australia Day BBQ, hosted by Richie, for 10 lucky winners and 2 of their mates. The event ensured the campaign maintained momentum through the build up period and delivered one final media opportunity on the day itself.

Having had the same Australia Day spokesperson for over 5 years, the business was starting to experience diminishing returns and escalating costs. The challenge was how to follow up one of Australia’s longest-living campaigns without losing interest from either the public, butchers or retailers on whom Meat and Livestock relied to promote Lamb during the period.

Having established the brand idea You Never Lamb Alone earlier in the year, focusing on the role lamb plays in Australians’ social lives, we had to give it social currency and make sure lamb was top of mind over the Australia Day period.

The strategy was to generate mass media coverage. As the national meat on Australia Day, there isn't a single household that isn't part of our audience. With that in mind, the decision was to launch with a film that was seeded with media titles before being officially launched.

This was picked up across Australia’s major media networks, Fairfax and News Limited. As well as print and online coverage across the likes of The Daily Telegraph and Daily Mail Online, Richie’s BBQ was also discussed live on daytime television across breakfast TV shows like the Today Show, and more importantly, during Channel 9’s live cricket broadcast, with Australian cricket legend Shane Warne even getting in on the story.