American Lamb Board Issues FY 2019 Annual Report
The American Lamb Board (ALB) closed out a successful 2019, highlighted by branding and website updates designed to better align with today’s food and marketing trends, and continued use of social media, seasonal contests and events to put and put American Lamb in front of consumers.
ALB’s FY2019 budget of $2,478,777 devoted $1,615,681 for promotion, $420,289 to communication, $187,119 to research, and $255,688 toward administration and USDA oversight.
The complete report, which covers the fiscal year October 1, 2018, through September 30, 2019, can be downloaded at http://www.LambResourceCenter.com.
ALB reports these highlight result for its 5 Core Strategies:
Measure the effectiveness of our programs.
Through an extensive Return on Investment Analysis, ALB learned the American Lamb Checkoff Program added 2.4-2.7% to the annual value of retail lamb, due to increased consumption of lamb and a modest retail price increase. In short, each $1 invested in the Checkoff Program yielded a return of $14.20.
Grow awareness and increase usage of American Lamb among chefs and consumers.
Two educational ranch retreats took media, chefs, nutrition professionals and food bloggers to American Lamb ranches to learn about lamb production. Their subsequent social media action reached an additional 1 million consumers.
ALB worked with USMEF to reintroduce American Lamb to Japanese markets. In the US, events like the popular Lamb Jams in target markets, allowed consumers to not only see how they can prepare American Lamb, but also taste it. In 2019, 65% of Lamb Jam attendees were new to the event, and 75% said they would attend again. The message hit the mark, as 55% said they were more likely to ask for lamb after attending.
ALB worked with more than 20 Lambassador food bloggers to curate 60 new recipes and photos that were shared across their social channels. New Global Flavors Booklet and Culinary Institute of America videos reached both established and up-and-coming foodservice trendsetters.
Promote and Strengthen American Lamb’s Value Position in today’s food environment.
Today’s consumers care where and how their food is produced. ALB has embraced this trend, and in 2019 developed new recipes and photography for chefs, as well as new story-telling tools that highlight why consumers should feel good about eating American Lamb. These new promotional assets will go into full use during FY2020.
Improve the quality and consistency of American Lamb and support efforts to increase production efficiencies.
The first ever American Lamb Summit, held in partnership with Premier 1 Supplies, worked to give all segments of the industry increased knowledge of production efficiency, lamb quality improvement, and industry insight, as well as provide collaboration and networking.
Flavor research continued, focusing on correlating flavor profiles and meat composition to consumer preference panels, and a Seasonality Analysis provided information for producers about options for adjusting production methods to meet seasonal demand.
ALB helped the American Lamb industry learn about how New Zealand production methods, allowing our industry to consider new ideas and better understand how competitors to our domestic industry achieves its goals.
Collaborate with industry partners and stakeholders to expand our efforts to address strategies.
ALB continued to support local promotional efforts through grants and materials. Actively participating in the Lamb industry Roundtable, where representatives from the American Sheep Industry Association, the National Lamb Feeders Association and packers discussed industry challenges and issues, facilitated transfer of information and input into programs.
–American Lamb Board