Hort Innovation is responsible for investing the mushroom marketing levy into a range of activities to drive awareness and consumption. Here is a quick look at what happened during 2023/24...  

This year the mushroom marketing campaign continued to build upon their vision to inspire more Australians to include mushrooms in their meals more often. To do this, the campaign focused on two strategic pillars: 

• Build top of mind awareness before consumers go shopping and while they are in-store. Through boosting mushroom visibility with outdoor ads, targeted social media, shopper promotions, public relations activity with chef Miguel Maestre, influencer partnerships, and ongoing website updates to enhance engagement and visibility.
• Create inspiration in retail environments with strong presence. Through in-store sampling at Woolworths and Coles, the campaign highlighted the versatility of mushrooms through a range of recipes. Retail media and point-of-sale activities included banner ads, digital tiles, and results cards to drive consumer interest and boost sales. 

Insights that drove our thinking 

• Infrequent buyers. The buyers who consume mushrooms about five times per year versus 32 times for frequent buyers present a key opportunity for growth by increasing purchase frequency.
• Pre-store influence. Research shows that consumers are far more likely to purchase mushrooms when they are prompted before shopping (from 11 per cent unprompted up to 43 per cent). This demonstrates the importance of reaching shoppers during the decision-making phase, prior to the store visit.
• Value and volume trends. Mushroom prices rose 3.6 per cent from November 2022 to November 2023, while other vegetables have seen a decline of seven per cent. This impacts mushrooms overall market share, as consumers opt for more affordable alternatives. 

What the campaign looked like in market 

Outdoor advertising (metro and regional outdoor panels near supermarkets), social media (Facebook and Instagram), shopper platforms (Woolworths online and Coles online) and radio (Southern Cross Austereo network) were all used to encourage Australians to consume more mushrooms.  

Woolworths and Coles used in-store and online activations following an ‘always-on’ strategy to keep mushrooms front-of-mind for shoppers. 

Australian Mushrooms partnered with chef Miguel Maestre to create mushroom recipes for breakfast, lunch and dinner with the goal of inspiring Aussies to reinvent their meals. The campaign ran through two iterations – one leveraged Miguel for Studio 10 segment and appearance at Mushroom Festival to drive awareness of the benefits of mushrooms, and two the story was pitched to top-tier media outlets around how mushrooms are reinventing mealtimes to drive consideration of mushrooms. Interviews with Australian Mushrooms spokesperson Miguel Maestre and release of Miguel’s recipes and imagery.  

A sampling program was also introduced to increase awareness of the versatility of mushrooms and invites shoppers to trial different uses of Mushrooms. The program started April 2024 and targeted a total of 331 sessions at Woolworths and Coles across the country.  

What did we achieve? 

Paid media performance 

• Q1 (July to September 2023):
  • Metro outdoor: Reached 2.88 million grocery buyers, six per cent above KPI.
  • Regional outdoor: Reached 822,000 grocery buyers, with 114 per cent value on delivery.
  • Radio: Reached 3.5 million grocery buyers, three per cent over KPI.
  • Online retail media: Woolworths drove $72,500 in new value; Coles and Meta performed efficiently with substantial reach and impressions.
     
• Q2 (October to December 2023):
  • Metro outdoor: Reached 3.55 million grocery buyers, 61 per cent over KPI.
  • Regional outdoor: Reached 1.395 million grocery buyers, 144 per cent above KPI.
  • Radio: Reached four million grocery buyers, 5.4 per cent over KPI.
  • Online Retail Media: Woolworths and Coles drove significant new value and impressions.
     
• Q3 (January – April 2024):
  • Metro outdoor: Over-delivered reach by 112 per cent, reaching 4.7 million grocery buyers.
  • Regional outdoor: Over-delivered by 110 per cent, reaching 1.179 million grocery buyers.
  • Meta: Reached 9.7 million people with efficient cost-per-mention.
     
  • Online retail media: Significant new customer acquisition and value through Woolworths and Coles.
     
• Q4 (May – June 2024):
  • Meta: Reached 10.7M people, with efficient cost-per-mention.
  • Online retail media: Notable new customer acquisition and value through Woolworths and Coles. 

Public relations

• Secured 267.3K opportunities to see with top-tier coverage in Studio 10, Daily Mail, and 9Honey.
• Achieved 100 per cent positive sentiment with strong resonance of key messages. 

Sampling results 

• Total samples: 26,262 samples consumed; 36,778 shoppers exposed.
• Sales impact: 5,937 pre-packed units and 3,649kg of loose mushrooms sold. Conversion rates showed a positive impact on purchase behaviour.