Pre-dawn at Great Bait, Swan’s Island, Maine. Bait in 2015 has been in demand. Lobster catch and prices are up. The Maine Lobster Marketing Collaborative has been working at opening new markets for lobster. Lobster has found its way to the plates of international White House luminaries and the pages of food publications. At the same time ground fishermen are organizing to legally challenge federal fisheries policies that threaten their survival. Peter Ralston photo http://www.ralstongallery.com/
New Lobster Marketing Initiatives Reach Millions
by Laurie Schreiber
PORTLAND—The latest round of initiatives to market Maine lobster has proven fruitful, says Maine Lobster Marketing Collaborative Matt Jacobson.
The collaborative hired global public relations firm Weber Shandwick in December 2014 to expand existing markets and find new ones. The hire was made after two years of discussion, following the market glut and price crash of 2012 that led to the formation in 2013 of the collaborative to replace the previous Maine Lobster Promotion Council; and implemented an increased license surcharge to fund expanded marketing.
In 2014, the collaborative decided to focus on U.S. markets, working with national and international chefs and journalists, and food distributors with a seafood arm. In March 2015, at the Maine Fishermen’s Forum, Weber Shandwick introduced its strategy to refine the focus to new-shell lobsters as a Maine brand and a seasonal delicacy. New-shell lobsters are those that have molted out of their old, hard shells and are in the process of growing new, larger shells.
Through Nov. 1, said Jacobson, the campaign has received 471 million media impressions, between print publications, websites, radio, and television, for an advertising equivalency of $1.79 million.
