Fire up the coals! Summer-grilling promotions aim to generate "hot" meat and poultry sales.

It's summertime and the grilling's easy, or so say some new industry campaigns and summer-grilling promotions that will be hitting stores this May.

"We think what we're doing this year is going to be even more significant than last year," says Randi Irion, National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA) director of retail marketing services.

NCBA hopes to repeat the success of last summer's grilling promotion, but on a much larger scale in 2003. Whereas the previous campaign, "Get Your Grill On," was launched in only seven major markets, this year's will land in 25 cities in a range that spans the entire country, and it will tie directly in with the long-standing "Beef: It's What's for Dinner" campaign.

"We know summer is a period of time when a grilling promotion is a natural for retailers, and there's a whole lot of beef available," Irion says.

As before, the NCBA's summer grilling promotion focuses on radio spots onto which retailers tag their own promotional information.

"The radio advertisement is a critical component, it's the foundation on which we build our promotions," Irion said.

In addition to the NCBA-funded radio ads, there will be shadow-traffic sponsorships from retailers in at least 15 markets, he adds. NCBA has also developed strategic partnerships with A.1. Steak Sauce and Marinades, Kingsford Charcoal, and Redwood Creek from E and J Gallo Winery.

Several state beef councils, such as the California Beef Council (CBC), will extend the promotion within their regions, as 35 state beef councils did in 2002.

"We're just beefing up the efforts, if you will, here in the state," explains Susan Clark, CBC director of marketing and public relations. CBC will add radio spots, store contests, and other promotional elements "to make the program really cohesive in the state," she adds.

Last year, four retailers joined the California campaign--Safeway, Vons, Ralph's and Albertson's. Although it's too early to know exactly how they will be participating this summer, Clark says that CBC's "got the whole state covered with all major retailers."

"We've seen large [sales] increases for the meat case [with past grilling promotions]," she says. "We've seen beef sales increases as high as 219 percent."

Pork's on fire

But beef isn't the only meat that'll be smoking. The National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) will be replacing last summer's "Where There's Pork, There's Fire" program with a "Pork. Now That's BBQ" program, says Karen Boillot, National Pork Board director of retail marketing.