The year-old, beefed up marketing collaborative for Maine's lobster industry has brought in Weber Shandwick to handle its integrated marketing account, spanning PR, advertising and digital/social.

The Maine Legislature set up the Portland-based Maine Lobster Marketing Collaborative last year with a budget rising to $2.2M per year by 2015, up from $350K under predecessor Maine Lobster Promotion Council. The industry, which has a $1B impact on the Pine Tree State, is under pressure to expand as its catch hits record levels and the price of lobster has dipped under $3 per pound to levels unseen since the early 1990s.

Lobstermen and the supporting industry want to shift the perception of lobster as an expensive, cumbersome dish to an easy choice for dinner at home or in a restaurant. They are also tackling competition from Canada and the Caribbean.

Brooklyn-based Feast PR previously worked with the collaborative. 

Weber Shandwick's Boston office will lead the integrated work.

MLMC executive director Matt Jacobson said the collaborative looked at agencies in Maine and throughout the US in a "rigorous search." He praised Weber's experience and success in a broad range of capabilities. He added: "They built a strong foundation of trust and compatibility with us early on, and we are eager to move forward with them to showcase Maine lobster."

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