Marketing snapshot - Hortlink 2017, edition 3

This Hort Innovation Banana Fund marketing snapshot has been taken from Hort Innovation’s Hortlink 2017, edition 3.

Hort Innovation invests the banana marketing levy into a range of activities to drive awareness and consumption, under the Hort Innovation Banana Fund.

After a successful six-month period of marketing for Australian Bananas, the brand is experiencing another big push in the second half of 2017. As always, the focus continues to be on getting the maximum bang for the banana buck and getting Australians to snack on bananas more often. The activity is continuing with ‘always on’ social media, public relations and the sponsoring of events, including community events, as well as the below activity.

Ambassadors

Billy Slater and nutritionist Susie Burrell are continuing to post on social media each month. Billy’s three Instagram posts since May alone have been liked over 21,000 times. Susie also shares great nutrition content to her social media pages and website, which has a monthly reach of 722,540.  An example of this content is the article such as ‘Why bananas are good for you’, which you can read here.

Events

Australian Bananas continues to provide sponsorship and merchandise to various events around the country, to provide the fruit as the non-stop energy snack for training bodies. Sponsored events include the Atherton, Tully and Innisfail shows, and the Wheet-Bix Kids TRYathlon series, which saw nearly 60,000 competitors and spectators.

Weight Check Day

Launched in early September to coincide with Father’s Day and sponsored by Australian Bananas, Weight Check 2017 is a campaign to help Australians better understand their current weight and take action towards living a healthier life.

All adults are encouraged to check and register their weight at www.weightcheck.com.au. The free online tool helps you to determine if your weight is in the healthy zone. It also predicts how your weight could creep up over time, and offers tips to maintain a healthy weight. The campaign also aims to raise money for the Garvan Institute of Medical Research.

To promote Weight Check 2017, commuters at select train stations recieved an Australian banana on the way to work on Friday, September 1. The inaugural Weight Check event took place on Father’s Day on Sunday, September 3.

Conferences

Australian Bananas teamed up with Australian Avocados to promote both fruits at the Dietitians Association of Australia Conference, held in Hobart from May 18 to 20. Attended by approximately 300 dietitians from around Australia, it was a great opportunity to discuss the benefits of including bananas and avocados in the diet, which the dietitians could then share with their clients.

Australian Bananas ambassador and dietitian Susie Burrell manned the Australian Bananas stand, which sampled delicious and nutritious banana and avocado smoothies and gave away recipe leaflets.

The brand also had a stand at the Australian Banana Industry Congress 2017 in Sydney during June, where a sea of yellow merchandise was handed out to growers and industry participants.

Online activity

Australian Bananas online advertising activity begun at the end of August and will run to mid-November.

This will include the running of new six-second video ads on YouTube and social media platforms. These shorter ads are designed to quickly convey the Australian Bananas message, are non-intrusive, and can be placed more frequently at a cheaper cost, ensuring the campaign reaches a larger number of online consumers than it has ever been able to before.

Online activity will also re-introduce display ads to increase Australian Bananas exposure on high-visibility websites.

Social media activity

The industry’s ‘always on’ approach to social media has continued, with great results. From May to July, over two million people were reached each month with Facebook content. An example of this content was ’When the boys find out you’ve got a banana for smoko’, which was the best performing content for the month of June and viewed more than 486,000 times. Buoyed by a massive State of Origin game and relatable copy for everyday Australians, the post was able to cut through in the newsfeed, delivering a great piece of reactive and relevant content, which you can see here.

Public relations activity

In the year ending June 2017, Australian Bananas featured in 159 articles – presenting an opportunity to reach millions of Australians.

Television advertising

A heavy first burst of TV advertising took place in late August/early September, kicking off the next phase of the campaign across both metro and regional markets, and subscription TV. Look for an update in the next edition of Hortlink.

Out of home advertising

The industry is continuing its strong out-of-home investment with posters on buses, retail digital posters in shopping centres (placed right outside supermarkets), large digital billboards and in-gym advertising all showcasing Australian Bananas from September to the end of November nationally.

Cinema advertising

Starting mid-September, a 15-second commercial was set to be introduced to cinema-goers nationally. This will give huge exposure to Australian Bananas beyond the traditional TV audience. And it will do it in shopping centre locations, close to supermarkets, specifically timed during the busy school holidays.

Schools programs

Australian Bananas sponsored two school programs in Western Australia and Victoria that came to an end in July 2017. The Melbourne Market Authority Schools Program reached over 20,000 people over the year-long duration of their program, while over 2000 students were involved in the Foodbank WA program. Australian Bananas will continue sponsoring these programs in 2017/18.

Bounty Bags

From May to July, over 57,560 banana cases were distributed to new mothers in Bounty Bags, reminding new families of the nutritional and health benefits of bananas.

Point of sale (POS) activity

More than 400 POS packs were sent out nationally over winter, to help promote bananas at the point of purchase. A brochure was also created to be distributed by Woolworths in Western Australia, and ‘dull banana’ POS materials were produced for independent retailers (promising that while a banana may be dull in colour on the outside, it’s still delicious inside).