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Plant-based meat makers—suffering from sales drops, stepped-up attacks from Big Beef and bruising press—are considering creating a coalition similar to those behind renowned marketing campaigns like “Got Milk?,” “The Incredible Edible Egg” and “Pork, the Other White Meat.”
While the group has not formally gelled, discussions among both small startups and bigger companies have intensified over the last six months.
Industry insiders have cited a few flashpoints: media coverage, including Bloomberg Businessweek’s scathing story early this year calling faux meat “just another fad,” and the anti-regulation lobbying group Center for Consumer Freedom’s resurfaced jabs at the sector as “ultra-processed imitations.”
The goal initially was to convene the coalition this year with at least a handful of brands across the plant-based food industry, not limited to alt meat. But inflation-driven setbacks and other complications have delayed the effort, with those involved in the talks predicting the group will launch in 2024.
Pete Speranza, a 23-year veteran of General Mills who’s now CEO of plant-based company Wicked Kitchen, said those in the nascent industry could benefit from a professional alliance.
“We’re saying to CEOs, ‘We’re not competitors, we’re advocates,’” Speranza told Adweek. “If we’re going to change the food system for the long haul, we’ll need to cooperate.”
Funding for the group—and the broad-based advertising that would go along with it—will be a major challenge, Speranza said, “because there aren’t a lot of profitable stories right now in the plant-based space.”
There’s no RFP out at the moment and no active search for an ad agency, but executives envision a multifaceted national marketing campaign as the centerpiece of the movement. They likely will approach creative shops with experience in the category, though they may be asking for pro bono work or discounted rates.
‘Category compatriots’
There appears to be widespread support for a coalition from players in the industry, with Daring Foods CEO Ross Mackay saying the collective power could help convince more retailers to carry the products and consumers to buy them.
