Marketing snapshot - Hortlink 2016, winter

This Hort Innovation Macadamia Fund marketing snapshot has been taken from Hort Innovation’s Hortlink 2016, winter edition.

South Korean promotional tour

This highly anticipated and successful event saw Korean celebrity chef Kim Poong and two high-profile Korean bloggers visit Byron Bay for four days to experience all things macadamia. The Korean guests participated enthusiastically in every aspect of the event and generated a host of Australian macadamia-themed blog and social media posts that reached their enormous Korean fan bases, enabling Australian Macadamias to leverage these broad and engaged audiences. Local media coverage on NBN and in Northern Star and Rural Weekly was achieved and professional footage and images from the tour were used for Korean public relations and content on the Australian Macadamias Korean Facebook page. The event exceeded all expectations, reaching a total audience of over six million South Korean consumers and generating 17 stories in Korean media.

April Fool’s Day

This long-standing tradition was used to generate fresh content on Australian Macadamias Facebook and Twitter channels globally. The campaign was spearheaded by Japan and also rolled out in Taiwan, Korea and Germany. The creative execution centred around the availability of a “Nut Cracking Expert” for a “limited season”, in the form of a cute little squirrel. The fun was backed by strategy, with the campaign communicating one of the elements of the macadamia story – that macadamias are the world’s hardest nut to crack. It also emphasised the unique sensory experience of macadamias enjoyed fresh from the shell, while acknowledging the effort required consuming them this way.

The results were outstanding, with the April Fool’s posts on April 1 delivering 1800 per cent more Twitter impressions and 480 per cent more re-tweets than the monthly average in Japan. Facebook reach was 400 per cent higher than average and engagement 285 per cent higher. A unique creative execution was developed for Australia, featuring fictional character ‘Mack Mangles’ claiming he had discovered a new species of macadamia – Macadamia Tennisfolia – that was producing “nuts the size of tennis balls”. Created to appeal to the Aussie sense of humour, it achieved reach of over 8000 and plenty of laughs.

Noosa Food & Wine festival

In May, freshly harvested macadamia nuts, macadamia oil and macadamia milk were shipped to Noosa to once again support Australia’s best chefs at the Noosa Food & Wine festival. Matt Golinski, Luke Mangan, Shane Bailey, Cory Campbell, Lee Jeynes and Brad Coats were just some of the many acclaimed chefs featuring locally grown macadamias in their signature dishes at the premier event.

Sunshine Coast-based Matt Golinski grew up on a macadamia farm, and his appetite for the precious nut continues to grow. This year he created a Japanese-inspired soba noodle salad using ginger, macadamias and coriander. “They’re just so versatile and great to cook with, and every time I use them I’m showcasing a little bit of this area. I love that you can get freshly harvested macadamias from local growers,” Matt said.

The supply of product was part of the macadamia industry’s sponsorship of the event. This year macadamia milk stepped into the spotlight for the first time, featuring in a number of dishes including Brad Coats’ delectable entrée of Hervey Bay scallops with lemon myrtle and macadamia crumble, and finger lime and macadamia milk foam.

Marie Claire collaboration in Taiwan

A Mother’s Day media partnership with Marie Claire magazine in Taiwan delivered standout results, with macadamia messaging reaching hundreds of thousands of Taiwanese women. The content consisted of advertorials and recipes encouraging the audience to cook a delicious macadamia dish to show their love on Mother’s Day. It also reinforced the health and beauty benefits of macadamias.

As an internationally esteemed women’s fashion and lifestyle title, Marie Claire asserts powerful reach and influence. This strategic collaboration delivered mass reach and valuable exposure of the Australian Macadamias brand to a high-value market segment.  The advertorials and recipes featured in 245,000 printed magazines as well as on Marie Claire’s website and Facebook page, with the Facebook posts alone achieving reach of over 475,000.

Noosa Food & Wine festival

In May, freshly harvested macadamia nuts, macadamia oil and macadamia milk were shipped to Noosa to once again support Australia’s best chefs at the Noosa Food & Wine festival. Matt Golinski, Luke Mangan, Shane Bailey, Cory Campbell, Lee Jeynes and Brad Coats were just some of the many acclaimed chefs featuring locally grown macadamias in their signature dishes at the premier event.

Sunshine Coast-based Matt Golinski grew up on a macadamia farm, and his appetite for the precious nut continues to grow. This year he created a Japanese-inspired soba noodle salad using ginger, macadamias and coriander. “They’re just so versatile and great to cook with, and every time I use them I’m showcasing a little bit of this area. I love that you can get freshly harvested macadamias from local growers,” Matt said.

The supply of product was part of the macadamia industry’s sponsorship of the event. This year macadamia milk stepped into the spotlight for the first time, featuring in a number of dishes including Brad Coats’ delectable entrée of Hervey Bay scallops with lemon myrtle and macadamia crumble, and finger lime and macadamia milk foam.

Consumer insights

The Australian Macadamias Facebook communities in Australia, Germany, Japan, Taiwan and Korea provide a rich source of consumer insights and opinions that enable an ongoing picture of the macadamia fan-base to be tracked. This valuable data was recently mined to uncover fresh information about who the typical macadamia consumer is and explore current attitudes and consumption habits.

This has revealed important demographic data and facilitated further examination of the ‘macadamia moment’ – a concept that was born out of consumer research and now forms a central creative strategy in the consumer promotional campaign. Key insights include the fact that macadamia fans are highly socially engaged and up to seven times more likely to like, comment on or share posts, and that the leading ‘macadamia moment’ for Facebook fans varied by market.

In Australia and Japan, the number-one macadamia moment was ‘Relaxing on my own’, in Germany and Taiwan it was ‘3 o’clock pick-me-up’ while in Korea it was ‘Post-workout refuel’. These findings have been summarised in a series of infographics that are hosted on the Australian Macadamias trade website and promoted to the trade via The Macadamia Review global e-newsletter. Further insights are set to be released in the coming quarter.

New harvest video

New videos showing what a macadamia harvest looks like were released in June, with fantastic early results achieving close to 10,000 views in just one month across the Australian Macadamias social media network. As the latest addition to the library of premium macadamia video content, they feature real macadamia growers on-farm and bring the harvest to life in a visually beautiful way.

Feeding the genuine interest macadamia fans have in the harvesting process, this ‘evergreen’ content will continue to educate consumers in the months and years ahead and reinforce the ‘paddock to plate’ connection.