Pam Lloyd, of fresh produce PR company Pam Lloyd PR, told growers at this year's Brassica Growers' Conference in Lincoln on 19 January that the Brassica Growers Association (BGA) and her PR firm have agreed that the new campaign must "eschew the old and negative attitudes towards this group of vegetables" and "inspire, educate and inform consumers and give them a sense of ownership of the vegetables".

Love Your Greens has been given a budget of £25,000 and is focusing on the most familiar brassicas — namely broccoli, cauliflower, swede and cabbage.

It sees the design and development of a new website for consumers — www.loveyourgreens.co.uk — which is being divided into several sections, including:

• A recipe section named Eat Your Greens
• An informative section named Know Your Greens
• Green to be Good — a section describing the health benefits of the vegetables
• Green Planet, which will discuss the environmental benefits of British-grown brassicas
• Mini Green — a children's section

Lloyd explained that the campaign will be encouraging people to get out of the habit of just steaming the products and putting them on the side of a plate. "If you start realising that you can stirfry them and use them in quiches and salads, you are going to be much more likely to start buying them frequently."

Last year's award-winning, low-budget campaign aimed at boosting falling cauliflower sales was the inspiration behind this new crusade.

Pam Lloyd PR representative Madeleine Waters told the Brassica Growers' Conference delegates that the cauliflower campaign sparked such an interest among the media that it generated an estimated readership of more than 44 million and total advertising value of £184,622 — yet its budget was just £6,000.

"It did generate and uplift sales but what is needed now is a consistent campaign over a long period of time."

Love Your Greens is primarily targeting families, food lovers and the health conscious — and so women's weeklies will be one of the first points of call.

Good photography to tempt consumers into trying the vegetables will feature heavily on the website as will a series of both traditional and contemporary recipes.

The PR team is also hoping to join forces with a prostrate cancer charity to better promote the vegetable's health benefits using the phrase "Love your man with British broccoli".

Growers are now being asked to show their support for the new campaign by volunteering to have their profile posted on the site and by volunteering to be a representative for their crop.

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