Marketing snapshot - September 2018

Hort Innovation is responsible for investing the macadamia marketing levy into a range of activities to grow awareness and consumption, under the Hort Innovation Macadamia Fund. Here’s a look at some of the most recent activity…

CONSUMER CAMPAIGN HIGHLIGHTS

Brand repositioning

A review of the Australian Macadamias branding and positioning has been completed and has resulted in the development of a new direction that embraces the concept of macadamias as a pure ingredient that offers a unique, pleasurable and guilt-free experience. Creative content that incorporates this new direction has been developed for use on social media channels globally.

Sample Food Festival sponsorship

The Australian macadamia industry sponsored the Sample Food Festival for the eighth consecutive year, supplying 26kg of macadamias to chefs and events. Sample is the premier food event of northern NSW and provides an excellent opportunity to connect with the local community and food industry of Australia’s largest macadamia growing region. The event generates social media content as innovative ways of using macadamias are showcased by chefs during the event, reaching more than half a million people. A photo competition was run that offered the chance to win $1,000 by posting macadamia inspired photos from the event on Instagram using the hashtag #Ausmacadamias. The event also included the third annual #Ausmacadamias “Instameet” where participants could meet a guest chef and other local and visiting Instagrammers.

Vox pop videos

Three short and engaging videos were filmed at the Sample Food Festival featuring fans talking about why they love macadamias. The first focused on versatility, and the second on discovering macadamias, with the third video focused on macadamias’ sensorial qualities due for release shortly. The videos have reached more than 80,000 people on Australian Macadamia’s social media and YouTube channel. International release will be rolled out soon.

Blossoming

The start of spring saw social media channels featuring stunning images and videos of macadamia trees in full bloom. This content was shared on the Australia Macadamia’s Weibo channel in China, while in Australia and Japan, social media activity was accompanied by in-depth posts on consumer blogs explaining more about this phase of the growing season.

Blogger collaboration

The ongoing partnership with Australia health blogger Live Love Nourish yielded a popular new recipe for Gut Friendly Banana Macadamia Bread. This was shared on social media and via blogs in Australia, Taiwan,  Germany as well as those of Live Love Nourish, the recipe caters to current consumer diet trends including gluten free, dairy free, refined sugar free and paleo. The recipe also formed engaging new video content.

Halloween fun

Celebrations continue to offer up opportunities to connect with global audiences and Halloween is a popular event in many key markets. This year a fun recipe was created for Ghostly Macadamia Meringues and Macadamia Monster Faces that formed popular content in Australia and Japan.

Chinese Valentine’s Day

Unique content of Australian couples getting married in macadamia orchards was shared on Chinese social media platforms WeChat and Weibo for Valentine’s on August 17. This generated lots of curiosity and comments from social media users.

FIFA World Cup fever in Taiwan

Macadamias were promoted as the perfect energy snack for football fans in Taiwan staying up to watch the world cup via FIFA World Cup Facebook content. Fans were invited to share the post, tagging 2 friends, and correctly predict the winning team for the chance to win a macadamia prize.

Beating the heat in Korea

South Korean Facebook fans were asked to select their favourite way to escape the summer heat with 3 options to choose from - Forest Valley, Cool Ocean or Chill at Home. They were then presented with a macadamia recipe to match their choice – Macadamia Salad for Forest Valley, Macadamia Pina Colada for Cool Ocean and Macadamia Ice Cream for Chill at Home.

TRADE CAMPAIGN HIGHLIGHTS

Snacking research

Consumer insights research into the snack category in both Asian and Western markets was recently unveiled revealing mood management as an emerging motivation for snacking. Mood management offers up fertile ground for new product development and opportunities for macadamias as a premium, great tasting and nutritious ingredient. Nuts in general deliver strongly on key snack requirements, but macadamias offer additional value such as:

• Inherently indulgent
• Even a small quantity delivers a big impact on taste and quality
• Nutrient dense
• Versatile taste makes them an excellent flavour carrier

The research also found that consumers feel many snack products force them to compromise on experience or taste, but the presence of macadamias in a snack product can eliminate any sense of compromise. Multiple opportunities were unearthed by this research, highlighting many ways that macadamias can be positioned to satisfy the needs of Asian and western consumers.

Key opportunities for macadamias include:

• Fuelling the day: consumers want ‘positive fuel’ in the form of nutritious snacks that help them power on, without feeling weighed down. Macadamias can bring nutrient density and an element of decadence not normally found in nutritional snacks.
  
  
• Relaxation: consumers look for snacks to manage stress, pick themselves up or distract themselves from reality.  Macadamias bring luxury and textural intrigue that is associated with indulgent snacks and elevate a snack to a treat.
  
  
• Social status: consumers are committed to living more consciously, gravitating to products that reflect a better, cleaner and more sustainable way of eating. Macadamias can add status and sophistication, helping consumers to justify the higher prices that often accompany these types of products.  
  
  
• Adventure: snacks offer the ideal way to bring some excitement, fun and discovery to the everyday.  Macadamias’ unique texture transforms an everyday snack into something new and exciting.
  
  
• Healthy and tasty: Many consumers are perplexed that most of the so-called healthy snacks available still taste like cardboard. Macadamias deliver both health and taste – a delicious ingredient that also has a health halo.
  
  
• Meal replacement: Consumers seeking to eat well want to be prepared when hunger hits and there is no time for a meal. Snacks offer an effective way of staying full without compromising their diet. Macadamias offer nutritional value, taste, and satiety without over-eating.  
  
  
• Sharing: Snacking is seen as a ‘social glue’ that helps make a moment more special, connected, and memorable. Sharing a snack product with a premium ingredient like macadamias suggests thoughtfulness and consideration.

These trends are now available to the industry’s commercial sector via the Macadamia Marketing Toolkit, to provide snack product developers with evidence of the benefits that macadamias can bring to the category.

Innovation Challenge 2 launched

After a successful launch in 2017, the Australian macadamia industry is bringing its Macadamia Innovation Challenge back for a second exciting year where competitors are invited to submit creative concepts for new packaged food products using macadamias. The scale of the program has been increased to invite participation from China and Japan as well as Australia. This world-first platform is aimed at generating new packaged food concepts that can inspire the food industry globally and drive new demand for macadamias around the world. Entries close 3 December 2018, with a spectacular finals event to take place in Byron Bay in April 2019.