Marketing snapshot - Hortlink 2018, edition 1

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

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

The 2017/18 campaign was the first in a new three-year strategy for the industry, building on the celebration of lychees and the ‘loving lychee’ campaign of previous years. As reported in the last edition of Hortlink, the overarching strategy puts a focus on the emotional connection consumers have with lychees, and highlights lychee consumption occasions rather than recipes. For 2017/18, the attention was on ‘Lychees helping celebrate special summer moments’.

The goal of the latest and future season campaigns is to drive consumption of fresh Australian lychees throughout the peak season, with a particular focus on consumers that are under 45 years of age, health- and fitness-conscious, ‘foodies’ and grocery buyers.

Activity is also designed to help overcome potential barriers to purchase. Consumers can be unfamiliar with lychees (and there is some perception that the fruit is expensive), plus there is the fact that lychees compete with other tropical fruit over the summer season. A core component of the 2017/18 campaign was to overcome these barriers through awareness, education and inspiration, and to highlight the delicious taste of Australian lychees.

Media and ‘influencer’ outreach

There was outreach to Australian media to help drive education and inspiration through high-reaching coverage. This involved circulation of a media release announcing the season, plus the provision of tips for selecting, storing and peeling lychees, and inspiring ideas for eating them. From November 2017 to January 2018, the intention was to continually remind consumers to purchase lychees via media and social channels.

Social media was also used to drive inspiration and reach lychee lovers. This included reaching out to key social media ‘influencers’ to leverage their enthusiasm for lychees, which they in turn shared with their own fan bases. Here the content pillars for the season, in alignment with the strategic direction for the three-year marketing plan, included ‘Summer Time’ (showcasing lychees are a delicious summer snack) and ‘Party Time’ (presenting lychees as a ‘go to’ for summer entertaining).

Social media

The industry’s social media campaign involves harnessing the lychee love from dedicated fans, and engaging new consumers, through the Aussie Lychees Facebook page and Instagram account.

During the season, there were two posts per channel a week, with the content speaking to the themes of ‘Summer Time’, ‘Party Time’ and ‘Me Time’.  The content put a focus on usage ideas, including in entertaining, with messages about freshness, using, choosing and storing the fruit, as well as fun lychee facts. There was also a focus on ‘lychees as art’, with the fruit shown in beautiful recipes such as ‘Buddha bowls’. Plus, a competition was run to generate awareness of lychees among the social media audience, and to encourage the sharing of images and recipes that heroed the fruit.

Insight into growing lychees was also provided, and all growers are encouraged to send through pictures and videos that may be suitable for sharing as the next season rolls around. These can be sent to the industry’s marketing manager at Hort Innovation – find the details here.