Marketing snapshot - Hortlink 2018, edition 1

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

Hort Innovation is responsible for investing the passionfruit marketing levy into a range of activities to drive awareness and consumption, under the Hort Innovation Passionfruit Fund. In case you missed it, the below update was prepared by the industry’s Marketing Manager and appeared in the most recent edition of The Passion Vine…

New campaign messaging

The 2017/18 summer flush saw the start of the new ‘A Splash of Passion’ messaging for the industry’s marketing campaign.

To support the messaging, three new videos showcasing three handy ways with passionfruit were created – perfect for sharing through social media channels. These included…

• ‘Freeze it’, encouraging consumers to buy up big during the flush. Watch the video here.
• ‘Crack it’, showing consumers an easy way to open a passionfruit without a knife. Watch it here.
• ‘Top it’, showing ways to finish dishes with delicious passion.

Three new recipes were also created, including a Passionfruit Acai Smoothie Bowl, Passionfruit Cheesecake Swirl Brownies, and Passionfruit, Coconut & Quinoa muffins.

The on-trend smoothie bowl was used as part of media outreach during summer, with the brownie and muffins set to be shared during the winter flush.

Media and ‘influencer’ activity

Media outreach has taken place throughout the summer season, with seasonal info, tips and tricks, plus summer recipes being shared with Australian media outlets and influencers.

There were also hampers sent to 10 high-profile media and influencers to announce the start of the season. The hampers contained passionfruit, a seasonal media release, ice-cube trays and ice-block moulds to showcase the ‘freeze it for later’ message, which was found to resonate most with the media over the hot summer months.

At the time of writing the media outreach was still ongoing, but at the end of January there had already been more than 40 articles published, reaching a potential audience of more than 3.5 million people. Coverage highlights includedBetter Homes and Gardens, Westfield, Best Recipes, several regional newspapers and a number of features on the Nine Kitchen website.

Influencer highlights have included passionfruit messaging being shared by Lyndi Cohen (The Nude Nutritionist), The Lebanese Plate and Nourish Naturally, whose digital and social media channels have a combined following of more than 230,000 people. These influencers are an important part of the PR outreach, as they not only have large followings, but are authentic in their love for fresh produce and are a way to reach the industry’s target audience in an organic way, through people they trust.

MyFoodBook partnership

At the end of 2017, the passionfruit recipe presence was increased on the MyFoodBook recipe and cookbook community website, www.myfoodbook.com.au. MyFoodBook houses a range of recipes and allows for members to create their own cookbooks, as well as pulling together themed cookbooks throughout the year. Last year, Aussie Passionfruit was included in the Dessert Lovers Foodbook, which was downloaded more than 11,000 times, and the Aussie Passionfruit recipes on the site were viewed more than 13,000 times in 2017.  This is a bonus subscription, and comes at no cost to the industry.

Social media activity

The Aussie Passionfruit social media presence continues, with the Aussie Passionfruit Facebook page continuing to grow its fanbase – increasing the number of people to inspire with passionfruit recipes, tips and ideas. Currently, more than 48,200 people ‘like’ the page.  Since July 2017, the page has reached more than five million people with passionfruit content and in December alone, there were 2.5 million ‘impressions’ (counted each time a post loads onto a page).

There has also been continued growth of the Aussie Passionfruit Instagram page, with the current number of followers sitting at close to 1200. In November to January, there were total page impressions of 16,200, with the top post being a cake with creamy passionfruit icing – inspiring consumers to get cooking with more passionfruit.

Coming up

At the time of writing the summer season was still ongoing, with full results to be shared in next edition of Hortlink. Looking forward, planning is underway on the winter campaign, with highlights including in-store demonstrations, and a media event to drive high-reaching stories on the visual, taste and health benefits of Australian passionfruit.