Marketing snapshot - Hortlink 2017 , edition 4

This Hort Innovation Banana Fund marketing snapshot has been taken from Hort Innovation’s Hortlink 2017, edition 4

Hort Innovation is responsible for investing the banana marketing levy into a range of activities to grow awareness and consumption, under the Hort Innovation Banana Fund.

Over the last six months, the Australian Bananas marketing campaign has increased advertising recall and kept bananas as the number one energy snack, while maintaining purchase frequency and volume, despite price fluctuations. Here’s a look at some of the activity…

Television activity

The most recent TV burst kicked off in August across all major metro and regional markets including Foxtel, delivering full national coverage.

Given the Australian Bananas TV campaign is now well established, a greater proportion of cost-efficient 15-second commercials versus 30-seconds were run. This cost advantage allowed us to reach a higher proportion of people aged 25 to 54 during this TV burst (45 per cent versus 35 per cent).

Overall, the commercial appeared in eight of the top 10 performing TV shows in metro markets, and all of the top 10 performing shows in regional markets including The Block, The Bachelor and The Bachelorette, Hell’s Kitchen, the AFL/finals series, The Project, A Current Affair, Nine News and Seven News.

A highlight was a placement in the best-performing episode of The Bachelorette for the season.

In metro markets, the ad was seen by 3,066,722 people aged 25 to 54 at least twice during the campaign period. In regional markets it was seen by 1,149,466 people 25 to 54 at least twice.

Out-of-home advertising

The out-of-home investment continues to play a pivotal role in delivering scale and repeat exposure for the Australian Bananas brand.

Retail digital poster panels, panels on buses, advertising at gyms and large-format digital billboards all featured Australian Bananas advertising from September to the end of November across all markets.

The retail digital poster panels are a great way to deliver a highly targeted message. Seventy per cent of the panels in shopping centres were located directly in front of supermarkets to prompt customers just before purchase. These panels were also time-targeted to appear during key snacking and shopping periods.

This activity was seen by more than 8.2 million people aged 25 to 54 during the campaign period.

Bus-side posters also delivered mass awareness and impact to our audience along their daily commute.

This financial year, Hort Innovation secured the entire bus-side network (versus the 35 per cent we have booked in the past), which meant Australian Bananas reached 400,000 more people than in the previous financial year.

The final layer of out-of-home investment featured targeted creative in over 400 gyms nationally. This fitness-focussed campaign appeared on more than 975 digital screens as well as more than 1800 standard TV screens. There were also 636 cardio screens negotiated, and high-impact placements in Fitness First magazine free of charge. All up the gyms campaign reached more than 5.73 million people aged 25 to 54.

From mid-September, the marketing campaign reintroduced commercials to cinema-goers nationally. This gave huge exposure beyond the traditional TV audience and extended the presence in retail centres close to supermarkets. The in-cinema 11-week campaign fell over the October school holidays, where prime positioning on 907 movie screens across a wide range of blockbuster movies was secured.

In total the cinema campaign reached some 811,500 people aged 25 to 54 in a highly engaged and captive environment.

Online advertising

The online advertising campaign ran from the end of August to mid-November. This activity extended the visibility of TV commercials in popular online environments such as premium catch-up TV services.

The catch-up TV activity continued to deliver a significant incremental audience on all devices including mobile, tablet and computer.

This burst also ran six new six-second video ads on YouTube and social media platforms. Due to their cost efficiency, we were able to reach a far greater audience with 3.8 million ad impressions during the campaign period.

Online display ads on high-visibility websites were also reintroduced. This time, point-of-sale data from Coles was used to specifically target people who have stopped buying bananas. The performance of this activity has been well above industry benchmarks with a click-through rate of 0.36 per cent for our lapsed/lapsing buyers (compared to an industry average of 0.10 per cent).

With more than 90 per cent of Australian households buying bananas, the ability to target a lapsed audience and re-engage them is a powerful marketing tool.

Social media activity

The Australian Bananas social media activity delivers a consistent brand presence throughout the year.

Since July 2017, more than 22,000,000 impressions to audiences across Facebook and Instagram and over five million engagements with bananas content has been recorded – either a like, comment, share or view.

The creative has had a greater focus on recipes and building partnerships with high-profile social media influencers. At key times over the coming months (such as Boxing Day, Australia Day, Anzac Day, grower content that has previously performed very well will be re-introduced.

Public relations (PR) activity

The marketing campaign’s PR activity continues to build awareness and positive conversations around Australian Bananas in the media.

For the second year, dietitian and Australian Bananas ambassador Susie Burrell has communicated the health benefits of bananas through monthly content shared on her blog Shape Me, along with ongoing social media support.

To stay top of mind with food media, 12 new delicious bananas recipes have been developed. The first six recipes have been pitched to consumer food and health media securing 61 pieces of coverage reaching 5,099,666 people to date. The second six will be pitched in early 2017.

To view all our banana recipes go to the website at www.australianbananas.com.au/recipes.