Global Seafood Alliance Reveals Successful Consumer Campaign Results

The Global Seafood Alliance (GSA) has released results from its latest marketing campaign, Choose Seafood with Standards, which ran in tandem with U.S. National Seafood Month in October. This was the second consumer-facing campaign for GSA created to raise awareness of the Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) certification program and boost sales of BAP-certified seafood. Ten retail and foodservice partners took part in the campaign, including ALDI, Giant Eagle, Green Chef, H-E-B, Lidl, Meijer, Wakefern Food Corp. and WinCo Foods.

Campaign tactics included a social media campaign targeting influencer engagement, the creation and promotion of new recipes on BAP’s consumer website, and national and regional consumer media outreach. Public relations efforts led to consistent media mentions for BAP, among them articles in HuffPost, Forbes, Tasting Table and The Daily Meal; a broadcast segment with CBS Austin with dietitian Mia Syn; and various posts by food bloggers.

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Campaign partners worked with campaign influencers, collaborating with GSA on PR opportunities, creating their own social content on BAP, posting and sharing BAP content and recipes on social media, and promoting BAP on their websites, advertisements, in-store signage and in direct-to-consumer packages. Examples include a recipe for herb-roasted salmon on Giant Eagle’s website, with an accompanying video; a salmon chowder recipe alongside the BAP label in Lidl’s monthly magazine, The Dish; and a cheesy baked shrimp dip recipe, featuring BAP-certified Wholesome Pantry shrimp, that ShopRite posted on its social media channels.

Using these tactics, BAP was able to generate 775 media mentions from Sept. 1 through the end of the year, which had a reach of 2 billion-plus people. This year, PR efforts were spread throughout the entire year instead of just during the focused promotional period. The social media campaign had a reach of 1.8 million and 720,000 engagements, a considerable increase from the 1 million reach and 170,000 engagements seen in 2022. The six influencer posts alone had 1.3 million impressions and 692,000 engagements.

GSA plans to build on this momentum in 2024 with a digital campaign during Lent, in addition to other promotions throughout the year. The promotion will feature new recipes currently available on BAP’s consumer-facing website.

Portsmouth, N.H.-based GSA is an international nonprofit trade association dedicated to advancing responsible seafood practices through education, advocacy and third-party assurances.