Marketing snapshot - Hortlink 2016, spring

This Hort Innovation Onion Fund marketing snapshot has been taken from Hort Innovation’s Hortlink 2016, spring edition.

The Secret Serve marketing campaign for the Australian onion industry is now several months in, having been launched in May 2016. The campaign has a specific focus on parents with young children and continues to encourage this demographic to include onions in more meals.

To engage consumers, the campaign continues to provide plenty of family-friendly recipe ideas, tips and information about using onions. There are digital platforms, printed material in the form of recipe cards, and in-store demonstrations.

The Secret Serve website

The www.secretserve.com.au website acts as an information hub with inspiring recipes and must-know onion information for consumers.

The Secret Serve Society has now been established on the website, involving celebrity advocates. Activity has included food personality Lindey Milan creating a Cheese Quesadilla, Australian chef Mike McEnearney creating Old School Fish Cakes, celebrity chef Darren Robertson creating Rissoles, and food writer Magdalena Roze crafting a Potato and Onion Rosti.

In-store activity

The start of the 2016/17 financial year has seen more investment in in-store activity, in conjunction with the mushroom industry. A total of 873 Coles and Woolworths stores will have in-store demonstrations over a six month period of the marketing campaign.

As of the end of October, 142 Coles stores have had a demonstration, with activity starting to roll out in Woolworths supermarkets from November.

Social media

The onion marketing campaign also continues to focus on social media. The Instagram and Twitter accounts (@secretserve) have regular posts to engage consumers. A Facebook page is also launching during November, with a focus on continuing a ‘Secret Serve Society’ through the use of both celebrities and the public sharing their own recipes and ideas. This will also feed back into the www.secretserve.com.au website.

Coming up

A new suite of summer recipes is currently in development and will be launched in the coming months, coinciding with in-store and social media activity.