Nation Chip Week, the British Potato Council’s intensive consumer PR campaign to promote potatoes, has beencalled a success by the BPC.

During this year’s campaign (February 17-23) the BPC generated news coverage for chips and potatoes in over 400 national and regional newspapers and was featured on television programmes like Emmerdale. It would have cost £1.7 million to purchase the media space that National Chip Week achieved, 27 times the BPC’s original spend.

The intensive activity helped trigger increased sales of fresh potatoes and potato products with major retailers. Previously, the BPC negotiated with retailers to have thousands of bags of fresh potatoes carry the BPC’s Love Chips logo. The BPC also helped organise promotional support material like shelf barkers and banners to further raise awareness of the campaign in store.