Hort Innovation’s mushrooms marketing strategy focuses on increasing domestic consumption by encouraging consumers, particularly light buyers, to purchase mushrooms more often. The strategy positions Australian mushrooms as instantly transforming everyday meals from mundane to mouth-watering, supported by three key pillars: building top of mind awareness pre-store through brand marketing, building retail presence and engagement and laying foundations for future growth.

Consumer insights informing the strategy

Research highlights a clear opportunity to strengthen mushroom consumption by engaging light and lapsed buyers, who currently purchase only three to four times a year. While mushrooms are strongly associated with health, there is an opportunity to translate this positive perception into a stronger purchase driver, particularly as health and wellness become increasingly important to consumers. Unprompted intent to buy sits at 11 per cent, but increases to 39 per cent when consumers are prompted, showing the importance of keeping mushrooms top of mind and on the shopping list. 

There is also scope to better connect with younger consumers, including millennials, by making mushrooms more relevant to everyday meals. Dinner remains the key consumption occasion, with 90 per cent of consumers eating mushrooms at dinner, although light buyers would benefit from more inspiration, confidence and simple recipe ideas to expand how they use mushrooms at home. 

Foodservice and retail also present further growth opportunities. Together, these insights point to a strategy focused on driving salience and consideration, inspiring easy everyday meals and building consumers’ confidence to use mushrooms more often.

What's planned

Mushroom marketing investment will focus on giving consumers even more reasons to choose mushrooms. Building on the established Mmmmushrooms brand platform, there will be a stronger focus on health benefits while continuing to celebrate the great taste, versatility and meal-enhancing benefits of mushrooms. The refreshed campaign aims to increase purchase frequency among light and medium mushroom buyers by reinforcing the role mushrooms can play in creating healthier everyday meals. Through a combination of brand marketing, paid media advertising and shopper media, the activity will maximise impact by focusing on the channels most effective at building awareness and influencing purchase decisions.

Key activities include:

• New campaign centred around the message that everyday meals are “made healthier with Australian Mushrooms”. Creative executions showcase everyday dinner recipes paired with key health proof points, helping consumers connect mushrooms with both flavour and health benefits.
• Shopper media in Coles and Woolworths environments to engage consumers close to purchase.
• Retail out-of-home advertising, with more than 700 panels located within close proximity to supermarkets to prompt Australians before going in-store.
• Social media advertising across Meta and TikTok to drive awareness and meal inspiration.
• Audio advertising, including national radio, programmatic audio and an integrated partnership with LISTNR to build mass awareness and strong reach.
• Earned media activity and public relations campaigns to generate additional reach, talkability and mass awareness. 

Media activity will be weighted to deliver increased activity during key winter months and shoulder seasons. Activity begins in July 2026, with the heaviest campaign presence occurring during July - October 2025 and again from March – June 2027. Shopper media will remain the campaign’s always-on channel, providing year-round visibility at point of sale. Social media, audio and retail out-of-home activity will be strategically amplified during priority periods to maximise reach, reinforce campaign messages and support demand throughout the year.

Supporting investments

A range of investments are underway to deliver the mushroom marketing strategy:

• Mushroom FY23 Marketing Program Storage, Printing, Ad-Hoc Opportunities (MU22504)
• Mushrooms FY26 Foodservice Activation (MU25501)
• Mushroom FY26 Marketing Program – Stickers and Cartons (MU25503)
• Mushroom FY26 Marketing Program Maintenance (MU25504)
• Mushrooms FY26 Marketing Campaign (MU25601)
• Mushrooms FY27 Marketing Program Maintenance (MU26501)
• Mushrooms FY27 Owned Media Campaign for Younger Consumers (MU26502)
• Mushrooms FY27 Marketing Campaign (MU26601)