Marketing snapshot - Hortlink 2018, edition 1

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

Hort Innovation is responsible for investing the mushroom marketing levy into a range of activities to grow awareness and consumption, under the Hort Innovation Mushroom Fund.

Australian Mushrooms back on TV

The Australian Mushrooms advertising campaign has been back on television, running throughout February and March 2018. This advertising is supported by a strategic mix of other elements including social media and public relations activities. Check out the ads on the Australian Mushrooms YouTube channel.

New Coles campaign

An online campaign across the Coles grocery website kicked off on March 1, promoting Australian Mushrooms via direct advertising and ‘product association’. The product association approach has been designed to gently nudge consumers towards products that ‘go well’ together – such as mushrooms and minced meat – to cook an easy meal. For example, a consumer searching ‘mince’ in the Coles online store will see an additional search result for mushrooms, with a ‘Goes well with…’ prompt. This activity will run until March 31.

Food service farm tours

In late February, the Costa farm at Mernda in Victoria hosted a farm tour with leading Victorian chefs and foodservice operators. The tour showed chefs the process of growing mushrooms from start to finish, ending with them picking their own to cook a delicious #MushiesOnSourdough creation for lunch. Australian Mushrooms ambassador Miguel Maestre also spoke about the benefits of including mushrooms on menus for the chefs, including ease of use and plated costs.

The tour was the second of four planned nationwide events designed to provide a unique insight into the complexity of the growing process, and to increase the use of mushrooms in the foodservice industry. An Instagram competition is run in conjunction, encouraging chefs to upload their best #MushiesOnSourdough creation to win a knife set – thereby promoting the sharing of delicious mushroom food ideas for social media audiences. You can watch what happened on the first farm tour, held in November 2017, here.

Events

At the time of writing, Australian Mushrooms was preparing to take part in the Sydney Royal Easter Show, with the huge family event running from March 23 till April 3. The show is one of a series of events that Australian Mushrooms will be showcased at throughout the year, which will also include the Sydney and Melbourne Good Food and Wine Shows.

In-store demonstrations

To educate and inspire consumers, and to drive purchases, Australian Mushrooms continued with in-store demonstrations in January and February. More than 120 sessions were completed during these months, with promotion staff handing out samples of Portabella pizzas.

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 has continued to grow, with currently more than 128,000 fans who see delicious recipe content posted weekly. The Facebook and Instagram pages resonate well with consumers, and continue to drive engagement.