A jam-packed week of festivities is planned to encourage consumers up and down the country to eat more seafood, more often. This awareness campaign seeks to further highlight the abundance of seafood on offer at local restaurants, takeaways, hotels, public houses and retailers.
Starting on Friday 9, each day of the campaign will focus on a different species of seafood demonstrating to the Great British public that their perfect fish dish is out there with a range of tastes and textures to suit all lifestyles and budgets. This provides the foodservice sector with the opportunity to showcase a product or dish containing the key ingredient of the day.
To support industry, Seafish has developed a range of ways for businesses to get involved which can be as easy as putting up a poster, to entering its exciting new competition, or attending a cutting-edge industry insight event. In addition, a full, specially designed industry toolkit is available to help your business get hooked on seafood this October.
By celebrating one of the UK’s most cherished natural resources, participating outlets can promote their business, reach new audiences and even be with the chance of being recognised as having the UK’s most sought after seafood dish.
Chris Middleton, Head of Communications and Marketing at Seafish, said: "The support from industry to date has been fantastic and we’re now looking forward to giving seafood a real push over the course of the week.
“At the World Seafood Congress, which has just concluded in Grimsby, delegates heard that innovation within the seafood market is continually required in order to see consumers eating more fish more often.
“To achieve that customers want to be inspired by an increased variety of fish species and differing formats being available. Seafood Week is the perfect opportunity for our industry to capitalise on these opportunities and demonstrate what a delicious, fast and healthy product seafood is."
Here’s just some of the ways your business can get involved with Seafood Week:
The Chef Recipe Competition
The Seafood Week Recipe Competition is asking aspiring chefs and foodservice outlets up and down the country to design a dish that is both easy for consumers to replicate at home and which represents the aims of Seafood Week.
All of the recipes submitted will be promoted on Seafish’s online consumer platform, Fish is the Dish. The winner will receive a culinary trip for two to London and dedicated PR support from Seafish’s award winning media teams to promote their recipe and talents to the media.
The Event
On October 13, with Seafood Week in full swing, Seafish will also be hosting a seafood shopper and consumer insight seminar at its site in Grimsby. The day of talks led by industry experts from Seafish, Kantar, RDsi and The NPD Group, will provide attendees with a greater awareness of the trends affecting the foodservice market.
The sessions will also examine the modern seafood consumer, discussing their tastes and behaviours. They will seek to inform the foodservices industry on the perceived barriers to seafood consumption and challenging it to address these issues through innovation and a focus of sustainability.
The Toolkit
To supplement this, a downloadable toolkit is available for all restaurants, takeaways, eateries and retailers that want to get involved in Seafood Week. It provides all of the information, advice and marketing collateral required for businesses wanting to participate.
Also included in the toolkit are the details of the official Seafood Week themes, a sample press release that can be tailored to any outlet’s local media, the official logo, an assortment of printable marketing materials to promote their celebration of the week and a social media calendar to help businesses engage with their customers online.
For more information on Seafood Week and to download the toolkit please visit: http://www.fishisthedish.co.uk/seafoodweek
