A disastrous wheat harvest meant British pig farmers faced high feed prices and crippling losses. British pig farmers’ body BPEX asked its team of consumer PR, public affairs, trade PR and advertising agencies to work together on its first integrated campaign to highlight the crisis and raise the price of pigs. Ultimately, this was a campaign to save the British pig industry.

"The Pigs Are Worth It!" campaign reflected the very high standards of animal welfare in British pig farming, and put pressure on supermarkets to raise the price paid for pigs. Activity ranged from a report into the effect of feed prices, to pig farmers recording an anthem. The ‘Pig-o-meter Tour’ featured a giant pig counting farmers’ mounting losses, and a rally on Downing Street involving hundreds of farmers. ‘Winnie the Pig’ culminated in the presentation of a 13,000-signature petition. Media backing underpinned widespread support from MPs. Thanks to the truly integrated campaign, from a low point of around £1.06/KG, by September 2008 the price of pigs had risen to around £1.40/KG, the tipping point that enabled British pig farmers to break even and help some to make a profit. This amounted to a total increase for farmers of £5.1m per week.

The ultimate objective was to raise the price of pigs from £1.06/KG to £1.40/KG to enable farmers to break even. The principal organisations with the power to ensure these increases were the supermarkets. To apply pressure on them, the team needed to demonstrate support from consumers for higher welfare, unity among producers and political pressure for fair pricing to reflect farmers’ costs. Research included: consumer polling that established support for the farmers and willingness to pay more to protect high-welfare production and a ‘Global Feed Commodities Market’ report to quantify the costs to farmers.

• National ‘Pig-o-meter Tour’ illustrating the mounting losses: November ‘07 • Media relations for “Stand by Your Ham” anthem: February ‘08 • National press advertising and London Underground poster campaign: winter ‘07-spring ‘08 • 500 farmers, ‘Winnie the Pig’ and 50 Parliamentarians attended the Pigs Are Worth It! rally, Downing Street received 13,000-signature petition: March ‘08• ‘Global Feed Commodities Market’ - high feed prices report presented to journalists, financial analysts and MPs: April ‘08 • ‘Is the Government Buying British?’ report calling on the public sector to buy more high welfare pork products: July ‘08 • Celebrity chefs “The Chefs Choose Pork” interviews and recipes booklet: July ‘08• www.pigsareworthit.com carried the petition throughout ‘08• Relentless pressure on retailers and caterers via trade title briefings • Jamie Oliver took up the cause with the “Jamie Saves Our Bacon” Channel 4 documentary, endorsing the high welfare standards featuring MPs, consumers and farmers: aired January ‘09

The price paid for pigs rose from £1.06/KG to the target £1.40/KG, with consumer purchases remaining strong. This amounted to an extra £5.1m per week for the industry.The campaign reached a consumer audience of 104 million through print alone, and resulted in 187 pieces of television and radio coverage totalling 18.6 hours. A survey for trade title The Grocer showed 50% of consumers were aware of the campaign. The website logged 115,000 visits, and in total more than 20,000 people signed the petition. Prince Charles expressed his support during his presentation at a key 2008 industry fair.Over fifty MPs had photos taken with ‘Winnie the Pig’ and wrote to retailers expressing their support. Twenty-two parliamentary questions, two debates in the House of Lords, and an Inquiry by the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee ensued. This prompted the Government to establish a ‘Pig Industry Task Force’ and Ministers spoke out in support.

In a climate of economic uncertainty and rising fuel and food prices, an argument based on the vested interest of pig farmers was unlikely to win support. The “Pigs Are Worth It!” campaign was therefore developed to demonstrate the high standards of animal welfare in British pig farming, communicate the state of crisis and give key stakeholders a reason to support price rises.

The integrated approach:• Consumer PR: making the emotional case for high welfare pork and exposing lower welfare practices behind imported pork• Trade PR: trade and food service media relations and partnerships with key titles showcasing the solidarity of the sector • Public Affairs: development of evidence base through robust reports, mobilisation of farmers to lobby MPs and photo-opportunities for scores of parliamentarians• Advertising: targeting consumers and retailers to shift attitudes to prices and high welfare pork• In-house press office: communicating with pig farmers through agricultural press and online industry forums

The core challenge for BPEX’s roster of agencies was to win support from the national media, consumers and politicians for a rural issue, in a heavily urbanised country, and in turn compel the supermarkets to act. Together with the in-house team and BPEX executives, they developed the first integrated campaign to raise awareness of the crisis and increase the price paid to farmers for their pigs.With higher welfare standards and, therefore, costs than the rest of Europe, many British pig farmers were close to collapse. The survival of the British pig industry was on a knife-edge.