Marketing snapshot - Hortlink 2018, edition 2

This Hort Innovation Avocado Fund marketing snapshot has been taken from Hort Innovation’s Hortlink 2018, edition 1.

Hort Innovation is responsible for investing the avocado marketing levy into a range of activities to drive purchase frequency and volume under the Hort Innovation Avocado Fund.

For 2018, a new avocados marketing campaign has kicked off the industry’s next three-year marketing plan with a bang.

The campaign idea, ‘Smash an Avo’, is inspired by everyday vernacular and the fact that avocados are so incredibly delicious, versatile and nutritious.

It has been brought to life in a television commercial with a series of visual metaphors that not only show how good Australian avocados taste, but also how they make us feel good and improve things… all with a good helping of topical satire.

The campaign was developed through the direction of Hort Innovation via an avocado industry advisory panel, made up of a cross-section of Australian growers and underpinned by consumer research.

The consumer study uncovered the differences in the consumer buying segments, including the drivers to purchase, what they love about the fruit, how they use it and the reasons why they sometimes don’t buy more. These insights were then used to develop the focus of the campaign around health and wellness, versatility and ease of use, with a play on the iconic cultural position of avocados and the connection Aussies have to the fruit.

Television advertising

TV plays a key role in driving mass awareness of campaign communications, ensuring key messages for Australian Avocados are established at scale.

The initial burst of TV activity, featuring the new Smash an Avo ad, kicked off on April 29 during peak periods for both Channel Nine and Ten, with the launch of The Voice on Channel 9 attracting an audience of more than one million people nightly.

The campaign was also placed within Channel 10’s massive rating show Bachelor in Paradise and the firm favourite for foodies, MasterChef. The addition of consistently performing programs like The Project, Nine News and A Current Affair also helped to drive exposure.

Soon after it launched, the avocado ad was voted Ad of the Month for May by respected advertising website Mumbrella – a highly competitive accolade.

Digital activity with the TV ad

Digital plays an important role by tapping into the fragmented viewing behaviours across different websites such as catch-up TV services, YouTube and music platforms such as Spotify.

Since the beginning of the Smash an Avo campaign, the campaign’s video ad has delivered more than 1.9 million ‘impressions’ (a single impression is counted when an ad is displayed to someone). The campaign is tracking strongly against the benchmarks set, and industry standards, with 85 per cent of viewers watching the avocado video until the end.

The strong digital performance can be attributed in part to the placement in popular programming, with the ad appearing before and during high-rating shows on catch-up TV including The Handmaid’s Tale, MasterChef and The Voice.

The YouTube activity has also seen excellent results, with a completion rate of 92 per cent. A focus on targeting food, sports, nutrition and health channels has ensured target audiences are being reached.

Out of home activity

Out of home advertising plays a key role in driving a frequent reminder of key messages, prompting the audience to consider and act. The first burst of out of home activity for the Smash an Avo campaign launched on April 29. Three different meal ideas were shown on TV screens at select shopping centres across Australia, close to the major supermarkets, to inspire consumers while almost at the point of purchase. The campaign material showed enticing food ideas with avocado as the hero, encouraging shoppers to ‘smash an avo’ to ‘make sangas better’, ‘make desserts better’ and ‘make salads better’ – with the overarching campaign message that ‘avos make everything better’. As well as delivering inspiration and purchase reminder, the materials pointed consumers to the www.australianavocados.com.au website.

Social media

The ‘always on’ approach to social media for the industry has continued, ensuring avocados remain top of mind for consumers. In April alone, some 840,000 users were reached through the Australian Avocados Facebook page, which shares recipes, videos, tips and quirky content. The top performing post for the month was a Good Fat Fritters recipe post, sharing a recipe from the Good Fat pop up café (read more about Good Fat and its success in the avocado marketing campaign here). The one post reached more than 251,000 users and attracted 191,000 engagements. It was popular due to its easy do-it-yourself style of content with many users commenting that they wished to trial the delicious recipe.

Avocado fans are have also been enjoying original recipes developed for the new campaign. This recipe post for avocado cheesecake, for example, was shared close to 500 times in only a few days of being live.

Australian Avocados logo

As part of the development of the latest three-year marketing plan, the Australian Avocados logo was reviewed to determine if it aligned with the overall strategic vision and position for the brand.

A consumer panel of 26 people was invited to provide feedback on three versions of the logo, including the current version, to identify the one with the strongest appeal for consumers and the greatest fit to the strategy and brand positioning.

The results of the logo testing highlighted that the logo below best represented what the product stands for, with consumer sentiment describing this refreshed version in ways such as simple, fresh, clean, healthy, impactful, approachable, bright, playful, innovative, yummy, premium.

All of the consumer touch points have now been refreshed with this new logo.