Marketing snapshot - Hortlink 2017, edition 3

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

Hort Innovation invests the passionfruit marketing levy into a range of activities to drive awareness and consumption, under the Hort Innovation Passionfruit Fund. Here’s a look at some of the most recent activity.

Public relations (PR) activity

In regard to public relations (PR) activity, since May the Aussie Passionfruit campaign has continued to inspire media, influencers and consumers to use passionfruit in new ways under the theme ‘Finish with Passion’. This activity was focused on spreading awareness of the winter season, encouraging consumption while supply was at its peak.

‘Finish with Passion’ showcased how Aussie Passionfruit can transform an ordinary dish into something special by simply adding a splash of natural and tangy passionfruit, while promoting seasonality, selection, storage and handling tips.

New, winter-focused assets – including recipes, a season update, tips and tricks –  were sent to media and influencers, and passionfruit grower Kaye Ziser acted as the passionfruit spokesperson.

Health graphics were shared with health influencers (bloggers) to showcase the fruit’s health benefits, and fresh passionfruit hampers were sent to five top media targets. These assets inspired media and influencers to promote passionfruit consumption in winter.

While the media side of the campaign wrapped up in July, the social media pages continue to provide inspiring and educational content to the public.

Key results:

• The 2016/17 public relations campaign generated 194 pieces of media and social media coverage, with a total reach of 12,815,097 people.
  
  
• It was a highly effective campaign with 76 per cent of coverage including seasonality messaging, 65 per cent including usage tips and 29 per cent including health messaging.
  
  
• Media was particularly responsive to hampers and the recipes with hamper send-outs resulted in media coverage in top-tier titles including The Australian Women’s Weekly, That’s Life, Recipes +, The Healthy Food Guide and Women’s Health and Fitness.

Facebook and Instagram

The Aussie Passionfruit Facebook and Instagram pages continue to inspire usage by providing useful tips on picking, storage and cooking with passionfruit, along with health information, recipes and insights into the industry and growers.

There’s a strong community of 40,000 fans on Facebook who engage with the page regularly. It’s a great forum for the public to ask any questions they may have about passionfruit, source information and provide feedback. The comments on the page are overwhelmingly positive, with fans showing great support for the industry and growers.

Top points:

• Between May and the start of September, the passionfruit page generated 1.5 million page impressions, 3760 post shares, 1384 post comments and 11,073 post likes.

• Since the beginning of the campaign, the Facebook page has grown by 43 per cent to 40,000 fans, while the Instagram page has grown by 70 per cent to 922 followers.

• The Facebook page features two posts a week, while Instagram features three posts a week with content that focuses on the delicious taste and provenance of passionfruit.

• The audience responds particularly well to sweet recipes and farmer profiles. The best performing Facebook post between May and September was a ‘3 ways to finish a dish with Aussie Passionfruit’ video, which showed how to make melting moments, passionfruit cupcakes and passionfruit tart using a simple passionfruit curd recipe. The video received 983 likes, reached 241,360 people and it was shared 895 times. View the video here.

• The best performing Instagram post featured a large bowl of fresh Aussie passionfruit in halves, and it asked fans what they’d like to do with it. It also informed the Aussie Passionfruit audience about the winter peak and suggested some dish ideas. It received 128 likes and 14 comments.

 Other activity…

• Consumer research was undertaken to help guide the development of the next three-year marketing plan for 2017-2020. Look for details in an upcoming edition of Hortlink.
  
  
• Passionfruit was featured in MyFoodBook’s Dessert Lovers Foodbook, which can be downloaded here.