Marketing snapshot - 2018/19

Hort Innovation is responsible for investing the mango marketing levy into a range of activities to drive awareness and consumption of the fruit, under the Hort Innovation Mango Fund. Read on for a snapshot of activities and results from 2018/19.

Public relations (PR)

This year Aussie Mangoes embarked on its first branded partnership with the iconic summer swimwear brand Budgy Smugglers. Using the mango emoji launched last season, the bright and colourful design of the bespoke mango swimmers were featured in national newspapers and also on TV, featuring on Studio 10. They were also worn by the Bondi Rescue lifeguards in a pre-Mango Mess-tival photo call attended by The Daily Telegraph.

As well as this eye-catching collaboration, media ‘famils’ were another element of the mango PR campaign for the season. Famils involve inviting members of the media to meet with growers and learn how mangoes are grown and this season, the WIN network was invited to get to know grower Raimond Bin on his farm, learning all about the hybrid mangoes he grows there.

Meanwhile, making mangoes front and centre in the best Christmas recipes was a key focus during the seasonal time of year to promote sales. There was outreach to Australian media which resulted in The Today Show featuring a mango salsa on Christmas Eve, while major food magazines printed multiple page spreads of festive summer recipes.

Overall, the PR campaign was effective at reaching consumers via the generation of national press across TV, radio, print and online. Through securing coverage in top-tier outlets with large audiences, such as The Today Show, Sunrise, The Daily Telegraph and News.com.au, the PR activity reached 25 million consumers – a huge 1923 per cent increase from last season.

Events

The peak of the mango season and the first day of summer is when Mango Mess-tival launches on Sydney’s iconic Bondi Beach. The aim of the event is to achieve national news coverage promoting mangoes on the first weekend of summer.

Not only was the 2019 event itself a messy and fun mango experience for all who attended, 21.3 million consumers had the opportunity to see the Mess-tival message, with over 78 pieces of media coverage generated, including six live weather crosses from The Today Show.

In the calendars of consumers, the Brisbane Mango Auction is the official launch of the mango season. Aussie Mangoes sponsored the event in 2019 with branding and influencers attending the event, generating 15 pieces of news coverage.

Social media

Social media is a cost-efficient way to reach the public, being used to provide engaging and inspiring content for mango ‘wedded buyers’, and giving people an opportunity to simply share their love of mangoes.

Using curated and created mango content, the Aussie Mangoes Facebook (www.facebook.com/AussieMangoes) and Instagram (@aussiemangoes) social channels celebrated the King of Fruits throughout the season. Facebook reach increased by 18 per cent this season, totalling 3.4 million mango fans and target consumers, while still maintaining a strong cost per engagement of $0.09.

Over the course of the campaign, 19,000 likes and comments were achieved on Aussie Mangoes posts, and 1.1 million people were reached within the target audience, consisting of families and ‘SINK’ (single income no kids) and ‘DINK’ (double income no kids) households.

Influencer campaign

Aussie Mangoes worked with notable social media influencers throughout the whole season, to help create and share mango-related lifestyle and recipe content to national audiences. Overall, this activity generated 290 pieces of content reaching 29.3 million consumers, which was a 24 per cent increase on the previous season. The highest-performing content included more than 40 pieces from health and lifestyle influencer Nourish Naturally, and George Georgievski – the dad behind the popular School Lunch Box blog and social media accounts – featuring delicious mango creations on Sunrise.

Engagement activities

Consumer research shows that the majority of consumers are deciding to purchase mangoes when they are already at the shops, and 63 per cent are influenced by catalogues in their purchase decision. For this reason, having engaged and supportive retail partners is a core pillar of the mango marketing strategy, along with having a united industry.

To this end, during 2018/19 engagement activities included retailer pre-season events, grower pre-season events, a grower market tour, point of purchase displays, retailer head office launches, retailer tool kits, mango sales challenges and other activities as opportunities arose.

Notable successes from the season included all retailers officially launching the season, delivering major marketing campaigns at the back end of October. This saw retailers investing significant spend and effort across television, radio, online, magazine and print advertisements, as well as in-store point-of-sale material, radio and bespoke activities.

Prominent mango displays took hold in October 2018 supported by excellent print media, the momentum built during November and December and continued throughout January, with late season varieties supported through to the end of March 2019.

For the third successive season, mangoes ranked as the number one fruit in number of print advertisements, for example in supermarket catalogues or newspaper advertisements for Woolworths, Coles and IGA. Mangoes also came in as number one for ‘share of voice’ (SOV), which refers to the percentage of advertising activities for one brand within the total advertising activity for an entire sector or product type. This meant that within the overall advertising for fruit within retailer print advertisements, mangoes had the highest percentage. From 2013 to 2018, the number of mango print advertisements increased by 307 per cent, while SOV increased by 136 per cent.

Export-market activities

During the 2018/19 season, promotional programs were created in collaboration with exporters, importers and retailers in Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea, New Zealand and the USA, with a trial program also run in the Middle East. The objective was to position Australian mangoes as a premium experience for consumers.

Markets and retail partners were chosen using the following criteria: a mix of markets with protocol requirements and those without; a mix of established and emerging markets; a robust supply chain capability delivering a consistent quality experience; and alignment with retailer partners targeting affluent consumers who are prepared to pay a premium price for a great-quality mango.

The consumer promotions varied by market and included a mix of point-of-sale material, in-store sampling, advertising, public relations, social media, and an Australian Mangoes sales challenge that encouraged, recognised and rewarded excellence in in-store execution.