Marketing spotlight 2021/22

Hort Innovation is responsible for investing the rubus marketing levy into a range of activities to drive awareness and consideration. Here’s a quick look at some of the activities and achievements in 2021/22.

In 2021/22, the raspberry and blackberry marketing program was designed to grow consumer demand using vibrant and exciting content. Core activities of the campaign included social media, influencer engagement, content development and a media partnership.

Social media

The objective of the social media campaign was to drive awareness and increase consumer interest in raspberries and blackberries, shifting them from being perceived as a special occasion food to an everyday enjoyment. This was executed by consistently reminding, educating, and inspiring Australians to “add some oomph” to their meals with raspberries and blackberries.

The campaign ran from October 2021 to June 2022, with 30 posts featured on Facebook and Instagram, along with two advertisements. The best performing post was a recipe video created by Gather and Feast, showcasing a simple and delicious “raspberry, coconut and vanilla chia pudding.” The video achieved 23,000 views and had an engagement rate of 8 per cent, and it drove 1,700 link clicks to the website. Since the campaign, simple ways to enjoy fresh, in-season berries remain the best-performing content on channels. The campaign achieved 10.2 million impressions (opportunities to see the content), reached 1.9 million people, and achieved more than 590,000 engagements (likes, comments, and shares).

To optimise brand awareness, two paid advertisements ran across the Fresh Aussie Berries Facebook and Instagram from January to April 2022, in line with the peak season of berry production. These campaigns helped drive brand awareness and availability of the fruit while in season. The two posts reached 1.25 million people, achieved almost six million impressions and 272,000 engagements, and drove over 2,100 clicks to the Fresh Aussie Berries website.

To help encourage community engagement, a competition was held on the Fresh Aussie Berries social channels, asking audiences to share how they “add some oomph” to meals with raspberries and blackberries. The prize for winning the competition was a Smeg Standing Retro Mixer.

The competition successfully assisted campaign reach and achieved a strong Cost Per Engagement on both Instagram and Facebook. The posts reached more than 112,000 people and resulted in 116 high-quality entries.

Content development

Content creator Marie Duong was hired for the campaign to create content that promotes Australian raspberries and blackberries by showcasing how they can add excitement to everyday eating occasions. Five simple recipes were created, focusing on snacks and breakfast to inspire consumption. The images and recipes have been featured across social media and on the Raspberries and Blackberries website. Marie delivered five simple recipes, over 30 high-quality images and two stop motion recipe videos that included: ‘raspberry brioche French toast’, ‘raspberry and whipped ricotta croissant’, ‘blackberry and nut butter crumpets’, ‘berry breakfast Danishes’ and a ‘berry and chocolate fondue dessert’.

Influencer program

An additional three influencers were engaged for the campaign to amplify campaign messaging amongst the target audience. The influencers created exclusive content with raspberries and blackberries as the primary ingredient.

The three influencers onboarded for the campaign: Anisa Sabet, Melanie Lionello, and Ashley Alexander (Gather & Feast) had a combined audience of over 490,000. The influencers created nine pieces of content, which resulted in 1.4 million opportunities to see via influencer channels, and over 10,200 engagements. 

Media partnership

Fresh Aussie Berries partnered with Are Media to raise awareness of raspberries and blackberries across their brand network, which includes New Idea, Better Homes and Gardens, Now to Love and more. This media partnership targeted the ‘creative foodie’ and ‘high-income female’ audiences with articles, videos, digital display ads and social media posts.

The partnership also included a survey with panellists from Are Media’s Insiders Community to ask about their berry buying and eating habits. The survey found that 95 per cent of respondents buy berries, and most buy every fortnight. It also found that snacking is the primary eating occasion for berries and that price is the main barrier to purchase. Raspberries and blackberries were the third and fourth most bought berries.

In 2021/22 the Hort Innovation Marketing function underwent a significant shift in their approach to investing marketing levies. You can read more about this in the 2021/22 Hort Innovation Company Annual Report at www.horticulture.com.au/annual-report-portal.