Marketing snapshot - Hortlink 2017, edition 3

This Hort Innovation Mushroom Fund marketing snapshot has been taken from Hort Innovation’s Hortlink 2017, edition 3.

Hort Innovation invests the mushroom marketing levy into a range of activities to drive awareness and consumption, under the Hort Innovation Mushroom Fund.

Keeping mushrooms in the hearts and minds of consumers spanned great heights this quarter, with highlights from master chefs, a new ‘mushies diner’, mouth-watering sampling and millions of consumers reached on social media.

Miguel Maestre: new industry ambassador

The new Australian Mushrooms Ambassador, celebrity chef Miguel Maestre, was officially announced at a media event held at Vive Cooking School. Top tier media were invited to the launch event, which included an exclusive cooking class with Miguel.

Off the back of this event, numerous media spots have come, including a segment on morning radio with Sydney radio hosts Jonesy and Amanda, and a feature with three recipes in Women’s Day magazine.

Six recipe videos featuring ‘mushrooms tips and hacks’ have been shot with Miguel, and will be shared with media and on Facebook over the coming months. The first of these recipes, ‘Black Skin Roasted Chicken’ was a hit on Facebook, being viewed over 211,000 times and being shared by fans with their followers well over 400 times.

Events

The Australian Mushrooms brand has continued to have a presence at various events around Australia to keep the heat on serving mushrooms up to consumers. Some of these events included…

• The Foodservice Australia tradeshow, held in Melbourne in late May. This was the first event specific to the food service industry that the industry has taken part in, with a specific target of breakfast and brunch meals in cafes and restaurants.

• The Sydney Good Food and Wine Show, held in June, where ambassador Miguel Maestre proved very popular on the Australian Mushrooms stand, doing cooking demonstrations for crowds of people.

• The Royal Brisbane Show (The Ekka), held during August. This event saw the launch of the new Australian Mushrooms Caravan (#mushiesdiner). The caravan will be taken to various events around Australia, including the upcoming Adelaide and Melbourne Royal Shows.

In-store demonstrations

Australian Mushrooms continued in-store demonstrations in June and July, with sampling conducted in 436 Coles, Woolworths and leading independents stores.

Nearly 35,000 samples of bolognese were handed out (an average of 80 per session), as well as recipe brochures featuring a range of everyday meals to help remind consumers to include mushrooms in their cooking.

Restaurant and Catering Awards

Australian Mushrooms has been involved in the Restaurant and Catering Awards by sponsoring the ‘Breakfast Restaurant’ award, as well as supplying the mushrooms to be included on the menu for the awards night dinner. Awards nights have been held in Queensland, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia, with, at the time of writing, New South Wales and Australian Capital Territory still to be held.

The aim of this activity is to increase the awareness of Australian Mushrooms to the nearly 5000 attendees who are involved in the food service industry.

Social media activity

The Australian Mushrooms ‘always on’ approach to social media ensures that mushrooms are top of mind for consumers year round. Each month, the social media activity reaches around two million people with Australian Mushrooms content. The Facebook page continues to grow, currently sitting at over 115,000 fans who see delicious recipe content posted weekly. An example of this is this Tapas Style Garlic Mushrooms recipe, which has been viewed more than 117,000 times and shared by 2545 people.