Ceredigion-based meadery to advertise its mead after benefitting from Sky’s SME100 support scheme
Afon Mêl is one of 100 small businesses across the UK that have been selected to benefit from Sky’s SME100 support scheme, receiving £20,000 of free Adsmart TV advertising across Sky Media’s channels, alongside a free 12-month superfast business broadband and digital phone package, courtesy of Sky Connect – Sky’s new B2B telecoms business.
West Wales-based drinks company and family-run bee farm Afon Mêl, which was first established in 1995 and offers a variety of raw honey, preserves and real meads, will now launch its first ever TV advertising campaign later in the year. Thanks to revolutionary technology from AdSmart, the 30 second advertisement will be produced by Swansea based company, The Content Creators and will exclusively reach the company’s target audience targeting consumers looking for something more than a traditional mass-marketed brew. This opportunity will allow Afon Mêl to focus on the audiences that matter most to them. The advert will focus on Afon Mêl’s new range of meads helping to raise the public profile of mead as an artisan drink.
As a small business located in the heart of West Wales, the pandemic has been a very scary time for us. We would usually welcome around 30,000 holiday visitors to our farm every year, bringing essential revenue to our business but instead, like many others, we closed our doors to keep our team and visitors safe. Thankfully, we received overwhelming support not only from our existing business customers but also from new businesses and most importantly our loyal online customers. We were also grateful for the encouragement and support from people like drinks writer Alice Lascelles, promoting our products with great enthusiasm. But winning an opportunity to advertise on TV with Sky AdSmart has come at the perfect moment for us as we strive to continue building awareness of our fantastic products. It has given us a golden ticket to trial a format for TV advertising that we are interested in exploring as part of our longer-term marketing plan.
Sam Cooper, Director and owner at Afon Mêl said:
“Our main message to customers is that although we may be a small, family-run farm we are also producers of some of the best mead available in the UK. We are the only mead producers to have ever won a Great Taste, Golden Fork Award and I believe this is because we approach mead making as beekeepers. The historical connotations have made mead a favourite with historical re-enactors. However, with the recent TV series Game of Thrones and Vikings, Mead has been bought to a much more contemporary audience. In our eyes it is important that this classic drink should be made by fermenting 100% honey and we believe there’s an Afon Mêl mead for everyone!
Sky AdSmart has allowed us to tap into our target market on TV, something we had never done before. This seamless approach and hands-on support has been something we’ll be forever grateful for. We’d like to say a big thank you to Sky AdSmart for this incredible opportunity”
Sky’s SME100 support scheme aims to help small businesses succeed and stay connected to their customers, boosting their recovery as the nation emerges from lockdown. The initiative, which first launched last year, takes Sky’s contribution to more than £4.5 million in advertising support for small businesses since the start of the pandemic.
The TV campaign is delivered via AdSmart from Sky, the market leading addressable TV platform, that easily enables brands to advertise on TV by focusing on the audiences that matter to them. This revolutionary technology means a brand can reach households by postcode area, within a designated distance of their store, or by household make-up or lifestyle attributes that best suit their service. In only targeting audiences that matter to the business, brands like Afon Mêl can be assured that their advertising will be relevant, accessible and drive business results.
Alongside the TV advertising campaign, each of the 100 businesses has been offered a free 12-month Sky Connect ‘Advantage’ business phone and broadband package. The package includes superfast unlimited broadband with built-in malware and phishing protection as well as ‘VoiceEdge’, the UK’s most feature-rich digital voice service.
David Sanderson, Director of AdSmart Local & Development at Sky Media, said:
“Local businesses have shown incredible resilience over the last year and become even more important to communities up-and-down the country. As the UK emerges from lockdown these SMEs play a key role in rebuilding the economy and need our support. We know, from last year’s scheme, that access to TV advertising via AdSmart can play an invaluable role in not only bringing back existing customers, but attracting new ones too.”
Kevin O’Toole, Managing Director of Sky Connect, said:
“Small businesses have faced unprecedented challenges over the last year, having to quickly move online to survive. Now, they are playing a huge part in kick-starting the nation’s recovery as we emerge out of lockdown. Sky Connect has been designed to offer the capabilities and services that small businesses really need as they recover from the pandemic, and we want to ensure they return stronger than ever. We’re really pleased to play our part in supporting them through this year’s SME100 scheme.”
