© 2024 Maine Public | Registered 501(c)(3) EIN: 22-3171529
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Scroll down to see all available streams.

Supporters Say Lobster Marketing Efforts Paying Off

The first year of Maine’s new lobster marketing effort is starting to pay off.

That’s according to supporters, who believe the $1.5 million invested is boosting the profile of a premier brand. And they believe the next four years of the campaign will reap significant rewards for the industry.

Given the popularity of the Maine lobster, you might think that chefs everywhere would be comfortable plating it up. But as Matt Jacobsen of the Maine Lobster Marketing Collaborative told a legislative committee recently, that’s not the always the case.

“We had a chef in Chicago whom I know who said, ‘Yeah, I’ll try it, send me some lobster,’” Jacobsen said. “And I sent him six live lobsters, and he called me in a panic and he said, ‘They’re here.” And I said, ‘Great.’ And he says, ‘But they’re alive, what do I do with them?’ And it’s stuff that we take for granted, but it just goes to show you that there’s a lot of education that needs to be done in the chef community.”

And the collaborative’s campaign is focusing on social media and other vectors to generate what Jacobsen says is an advertising equivalency of $3.5 million.

Jacobsen says the collaborative’s efforts to advance the sale of new shell lobsters will shift into second gear with a $2.25 million budget that will focus on chefs with new marketing slogan: “Make it Maine. Make it new shell.”

“I think the name sells itself,” says Mike Thompson. “When people hear Bar Harbor, they almost automatically assume lobster.”

From his roots in Bangor to a job waiting tables in Bar Harbor, Thompson says he gravitated to a wait staff position at the Lazy Lobster Restaurant at Long Boat Key on Florida’s Sarasota Bay. The restaurant sells only Maine lobster, and Thompson says efforts such as the collaboratives will pay off as more and more members of the dining public make the Maine connection.

Increased sales from the campaign are good news for dealers who ship lobsters across the country, but fishermen such as Addison Ames Jr. of Vinalhaven, who help pay for the campaign through additional fees tacked on to their licenses, hope the collaborative’s efforts will eventually trickle down to those on the boats.

“I wish everyone to make a living here, I really do, but if it only goes to the top one percent, that wasn’t such a good feeling,” Ames said.

Because of the complexities and fragility of the product, Matt Jacobsen says it is difficult to give fishermen the kind of guarantees they would like to hear about the marketing effort.

“I can’t measure sales, I have no control of that,” Jacobsen said. “How many things can go wrong between a contact that I open up and a sale actually occurring, that I don’t have control over.”

Jacobsen’s response left lawmakers on the Marine Resources Committee cautiously optimistic about the new shell campaign. House Chair Walter Kumiega of Deer Isle says it’s simply too soon to evaluate whether the additional marketing money is succeeding.

And Rep. Michael Devin of Newcastle remained more circumspect after questioning Jacobsen on whether the additional license fees would have a payoff for fishermen.

“Putting it mildly, I’m skeptical. Having said that, I know that we need to collect the data,” Devin said. “I was disappointed with Matt in that he couldn’t answer my question more thoroughly.”

Jacobsen remains confident that he will have delivered the kind of results lawmakers demand to convince them that marketing effort is worth continuing when the cash flow from the licensing fees expires in two years.