By Marianne LaCroix
The Maine Lobster Marketing Collaborative (MLMC) has marketing activities planned to keep Maine lobster top of mind among consumers this fall including a new Maine Lobster Tour, National Lobster Day, Maine Lobster Week, and public relations and social media activations. With lower lobster landings over the summer, everyone is hoping for a robust fall fishing season to fill the supply chain.
Marianne LaCroix is the executive director of the MLMC.
The Maine Lobster Tour was launched in early September. This promotion highlights restaurants that have Maine lobster on the menu in three key markets. The initial phase of the Tour focuses on Miami, Chicago, and Dallas, with restaurants curated by local influencers in each city. The influencers are sharing their Tour recommendations with engaged audiences on their social media channels, and the MLMC is maximizing coverage of the Tours by posting on its own social media channels and amplifying with digital advertising. You can see the Tour locations on a dedicated Lobster Tour section of the MLMC website (www.lobsterfrommaine.com), which also includes restaurant listings in Maine.
On September 25, we celebrated the ninth annual Maine Lobster Day. The MLMC established this holiday in 2015 to create publicity around Maine lobster in the important fall season. This holiday is a great hook for our public relations efforts and enables us to generate extensive media coverage in the fall season. The holiday also provides an incentive for restaurants and retailers around the country to highlight their lobster offerings to consumers. The MLMC works with Maine’s Senators to have September 25 declared as National Lobster Day each year.
Maine Lobster Week is a celebration MLMC developed to complement National Lobster Day. Modelled after the popular Maine Restaurant Week, Maine Lobster Week includes dozens of restaurants around the state offering special three-course lobster menus or unique lobster dishes for the week. The MLMC provides marketing support, including public relations outreach, social media promotions, and radio and digital advertising to help raise awareness of the event and drive traffic to participating restaurants. This year, we are also working with food influencers in New England to promote both National Lobster Day and Maine Lobster Week. These influencers help to extend our messages to their engaged audiences.
To broaden the reach of Maine Lobster Week, we included Maine lobster doorstep deliveries in the promotion. Several direct-to-consumer shippers, including Luke’s Lobster, Hancock Gourmet, Harbor Fish Market, McLoon’s, and Bob’s Seafood, all offered special promotions for Maine Lobster Week. Direct-to-consumer offers are an important part of the promotion because, in addition to making Maine lobster available to people across the country, they also give us the opportunity to pitch the promotion to media outlets outside Maine.
While Maine Lobster Week and National Lobster Day provide opportunities to generate media coverage during the fall, the MLMC also developed an article highlighting one of our most popular influencer-produced recipes and wove in key messages of ease-of-use and sustainability. The article is being distributed across the country and is a guaranteed means of reaching a wide range of consumers.
The MLMC will round out the year with holiday promotions for Maine lobster. We work with Maine lobster suppliers who are offering special products for the holiday season, such as dishes to serve for holiday events or gift options for the season.
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