Marketing update
Smart spend
Publication date: August 31, 2026
An article from Maketing Impact August 2026
That means campaigns built on evidence, designed to solve real market challenges, and delivered in ways that stretch levy investment further.
Across avocados, nursery, cherries and summerfruit, Hort Innovation-funded activity is showing how smart marketing and education can change consumer behaviour, create demand and make every dollar work harder.
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Australians love avocados, but 2025 research by Australian Avocados revealed a surprisingly costly habit in the supermarket aisle: more than half of Australian shoppers admitted to squeezing the middle of an avo to test for ripeness.
With every squeeze having the potential to bruise the fruit, and two in three saying they handled up to three avocados each shop, that’s a lot of growers’ hard work being in danger of being discarded before it has the chance to get to the checkout.
The Marketing Team devised a simple, memorable and deliberately playful solution to the challenge – an education campaign that urged shoppers to ‘check the neck’ rather than squeezing in the middle.
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To make that message stick, Australian Avocados enlisted Eddie Williams (pictured with Hort Innovations’ Victoria Zourkas), Australia’s Strongest Man titleholder and Australia’s Got Talent finalist, to front a campaign that turned a practical education message into a catchy tune and saying that shoppers could remember at the exact moment they were making a purchase decision:
“Are you bruisin’ while choosin'?” and “The Neck is where to check”.
Goal: Help shoppers choose ripe avocados without bruising fruit.
Outcome measures: 160 pieces of coverage with 13 million opportunities to see, including The Morning Show.
Channels: Video, PR, social, website, influencer (Strongman Eddie Williams).
Grower value: Better handling, stronger eating experience, less risk of fruit disappointment.
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Consumers often think of plants as a lifestyle choice rather than an investment. The challenge for the nursery industry was to reposition greenery as something that also adds real dollar value to a property.
Hort Innovation and Greener Spaces Better Places partnered with Domain to quantify how much, in dollar terms, having green spaces increases a property’s value.
The Plant Value Report analysed property listings and found that homes marketed with greenery performed better.
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In a country obsessed with property prices, that gave the campaign a strong media hook:
The value of adding greenery to a property was more than aesthetic – it could literally increase house prices.
The campaign tapped into the credibility of Dr Nicola Powell, Domain’s Chief of Research & Economics, and Interiors expert Neale Whitaker to expand its mainstream media and social media reach well beyond a standard advertising campaign.
North Central Review
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The Fold
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Mortgage Professional Australia
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Australian Broker
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spi
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reb
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Domain
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For cherries, peaches, nectarines, plums and apricots, the last stage of the supply chain is in store.
That is where shoppers see the fruit, judge quality, compare price, choose what to buy and decide whether to come back for more. So it is also where handling, storage or presentation issues can make a big difference to the purchasing and eating experience.
Retail store staff, who may not have had specific training in handling seasonal fruit, play a key role in this final step.
Hort Innovation’s cherry and summerfruit campaign exploited that opportunity:
creating a multi-industry retail education program for store staff.
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Better-trained staff and stronger merchandising can help protect fruit quality, improve the shopper experience and support conversion at the point of purchase.
Instead of running separate programs with similar objectives, the campaign brought the categories together around shared goals: stronger visibility, better presentation, improved quality and clearer store and consumer education.
The campaign reached 950 stores, an 18 per cent increase year-on-year, and delivered 6,200 retail training sessions. It also achieved a 9 per cent cost saving, showing the value of collaboration when industries are working towards aligned outcomes.
In store, KPIs improved by 8 per cent for cherries and 4 per cent for summerfruit, across presentation, handling, quality and storage.
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The multi-industry approach was a practical way to build scale, reduce duplication and make the investment work harder across more than one industry.
Its success demonstrated how industries with shared challenges can achieve more together than they might alone.
© 2026 Horticulture Innovation Australia Limited.
