Marketing snapshot - Hortlink 2017, edition 1

This Hort Innovation Lychee Fund marketing snapshot has been taken from Hort Innovation’s Hortlink 2017 edition 1.

This lychee season, Aussie Lychees marketing has once again continued the ‘Love From Lychees’ campaign theme, now in its fourth year. With a focus on social media, campaign messaging showcases lychees as an indulgent and healthy treat, available for a shorter season but still versatile for cooking and eating.

All activities are designed to celebrate lychee season, showcase versatility, and reinforce use and eating occasions to drive sales. There is the use of the #MeTimeMoment hashtag which, continuing on from last season, reinforces lychees as a guilt-free indulgence and the perfect snack for a bit of ‘me time’.

Facebook

On Facebook (www.facebook.com/AussieLychees), campaign messaging is communicated in recipe videos, trivia posts, top-tips posts and harvest imagery. There is also influencer content sharing. One of the most successful posts of 2017 so far has been a ‘how to peel a lychee; video, which has reached some 224,000 people, been viewed 111,000 times and received 4757 engagements.

There is also a competition period that’s all about the #MeTimeMoment. Running for six weeks, consumers are asked to comment on a weekly social media post, explaining their ideal lychee ‘Me Time Moment’ using the competition hashtag. Entrants go into the running to receive gift vouchers to purchase lychees and for a luxurious spa treatment. At the timeof writing the competition period was halfway, with posts reaching 73,216 people.

Instagram

Being a visual medium, the Instagram channel (@aussielychees) is rich for providing beautiful serving suggestions, harvest imagery and sharing delicious and enticing influencer content. All the activity is geared towards showcasing versatility, encouraging consumer engagement, and building a strong community of lychee lovers around Australia.

Since activity kicked off on January 1 this year, Instagram posts are performing stronger than ever, with an average of almost 80 engagements (likes, comments, shares) per post.

For this season, a new activity on Instagram has involved engaging popular digital influencers to share lychee imagery that promotes versatility, serving suggestions and the health benefits of lychees. At the time of writing, 14 posts had been secured to be shared throughout the season, with seven posted so far to an audience of some 170,000 people and receiving upwards of 4450 likes and comments.

Influencer content series

In addition to other influencer content sharing, two popular health and foodie bloggers have been engaged to produce a series of lychee-filled content throughout the season for all their social channels. This activity is aimed at providing recipes and serving suggestions, and educating the influencers’ communities on the benefits of lychees.

The influencers are health, nutrition and lifestyle bloggers Jessica Sepel of JS Health and Lilian Dikmans of Real Food Healthy Body. They are due to begin publishing content shortly, sharing lychee recipes to their blogs and further lychee content across Instagram and Facebook. Combined, these influencers’ platforms reach over 900,000 people.