Marketing snapshot - Hortlink 2018, edition 1

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

Hort Innovation is responsible for investing the macadamia marketing levy into a range of activities to drive awareness and consumption, under the Hort Innovation Macadamia Fund. This activity is managed by our partner team at the Australian Macadamia Society, which has provided the below update on recent activity over the summer months…

CONSUMER CAMPAIGN HIGHLIGHTS

Blogger outreach over the festive season

The Christmas and New Year period was leveraged via a highly effective blogger outreach campaign, with Christmas macadamia gift boxes sent to a selection of influential Australian bloggers.

The initiative inspired an influx of high quality new content, including recipes, competitions and craft ideas that were shared on social media platforms. This messaging was amplified by each of the influencers sharing their content with their own audiences as well, with the activity reaching more than 220,000 people.

Highlights included Lime macadamia dip with sweet potato chips from Eat Pray Workout, Macadamia shortbread from dietitian Simone Austin, and Macadamia Christmas craft ideas from Mother Natured.

A longer-term partnership with blogger Live Love Nourish also generated new content, with her recipe for Macadamia cream cheese and smoked salmon canapes proving very popular with fans and featuring in the industry’s own New Year’s Eve party recipes blog post. This recipe reached more than 63,000 people across the Live Love Nourish platforms alone.

In the South Korean market there were also collaborations with a selection of food bloggers, resulting in new Christmas recipes including Macadamia salmon steaks, Macadamia mac and cheese and Macadamia lollypop cookies, as well as a beauty recipe for Macadamia oil body balm.

German social media giveaway

The Australian Macadamias German Facebook community participated enthusiastically in a Christmas giveaway, with fans offered the chance to win Noan roasted and salted macadamias by answering a simple question. The competition kept fans entertained and engaged in the lead-up to Christmas, with weekly chances to win.

Japanese New Year activity

In Japan, the new year is spent eating ‘Osechi’ with family – colourful, traditional dishes, containing ingredients that symbolise good fortune. As part of the Australian Macadamias marketing campaign, delicious recipe ideas for Osechi dishes using macadamias were created. The macadamia Osechi menu included chopped burdock with macadamias, grilled shrimp with macadamia sauce, white kinton macadamia and macadamia salted beans.

New Year blessings in Taiwan

To engage consumers and keep Australian Macadamias top of mind, an interactive Facebook event in Taiwan saw fans invited to choose their favourite virtual macadamia gift to see what blessing they received. There were four ‘gifts’ to choose from, with each delivering a unique blessing for energy, luck, safety or fortune.

Australia Day picnic content

Australia Day is always a key occasion to promote macadamias as Australia’s iconic nut. This year’s content focused on how to enjoy the perfect Aussie picnic. Recipes from the blogger outreach campaign proved to be perfect content too, with Macadamia and Vegemite cheese scrolls and Lemon myrtle roasted macadamias an ideal fit.

On Instagram, a lemon myrtle macadamia Australia Day co-promotion with Live Love Nourish and Kakadu Plum Co offered fans the chance to win a macadamia prize.

In international markets, Facebook fans were asked to nominate what dish they would bring to an Australia Day picnic.

Chinese New Year with macadamias

A suite of engaging activity was executed on Chinese social media channel Weibo for Australian Macadamias. A three-phase approach saw content rolled out pre, during and post-new year.

• Tapping into the Chinese tradition of preparing ‘Nianhuo’ (snacks for spring festival), the countdown content was snack-focused, with fans invited to share their snack ideas.
• A delicious macadamia pot-sticker dumpling recipe featured on the eve of Chinese New Year, and fans were encouraged to share their new year dinner plans for the chance to win a macadamia prize.
• The close of the festival saw a shift to health messaging, highlighting macadamias as a great weight management snacking choice for people who over-indulged during the holiday period.

Chinese New Year campaigns also ran on the Australian Macadamias Facebook pages in Taiwan and South Korea.

TRADE CAMPAIGN HIGHLIGHTS

The trade campaign is now keenly focused on activating the Australian macadamia industry’s three-year international marketing strategy, designed to drive steady growth in global demand in anticipation of more robust supply becoming available. The strategy’s centrepiece is the ‘Innovation Initiative’, which is being rolled out in a series of instalments, outlined below.

Macadamia Marketing Toolkit launch

The Marketing Toolkit was created to help the commercial sector convey a compelling story about macadamias and illustrate the many benefits to food manufacturers of including macadamias in their innovation pipelines.

Powerful consumer research is a key component of the Toolkit, providing product developers with evidence that macadamias are a sought-after ingredient that can elevate any product they’re included in.

The first round of new research on global food and beverage trends has already been conducted (see below), with key findings included in the Toolkit. Research will continue to be carried out over the next two years, focusing on those product categories that offer the most scope to innovate using macadamias.

New global food and beverage trends revealed

Insights have been released from the industry’s most recent research study that examined the latest global consumer trends for food and beverages, how they’re manifesting in both western and Asian markets, and what they mean for macadamias.

This research identified five key macro trends that are set to shape the food and beverage landscape over the next five to seven years:

• Control of health: consumer in control
• Here and now: instant gratification
• No filter: the need for trust
• Global fusion: the need to explore
• Memorable food: the need to escape

These trends, which are detailed in the Marketing Toolkit, signal changes in consumer expectations, enabling manufacturers to innovate in ways that will meet changing consumer desires as they come to fruition.

Macadamia Innovation Challenge winners announced

The world-first Macadamia Innovation Challenge recently concluded its first phase. The Challenge invited competitors (food professionals and university students) to submit innovative concepts for new packaged food products containing macadamias, in the snacking, ice-cream and bakery categories, with either an Asian or western flavour profile.

Ten finalists came to Byron Bay for the judging event and VIP winner announcement ceremony, with two trips to the SIAL food exhibition in Paris and a $5000 cash prize on offer. The three winning entries were Macadamia Mind Food Bars, Macadamia & Miso Caramel Cookies, and Macci Ice Cream.

The events attracted strong media attention, with excellent coverage achieved domestically and internationally, including on NBN Nightly News, Northern Star, Australian Food News, Food and Drink Business, and Food and Beverage Industry News.

Many of the macadamia product concepts developed for the Challenge are now available for adoption by interested food manufacturers and product developers globally.

Details of all recent marketing activities are regularly published on the Australian Macadamia Society website here.