Marketing snapshot - 2020/21

Hort Innovation is responsible for investing the industry’s marketing levy into a range of activities to drive awareness and use of raspberries and blackberries under the Hort Innovation Raspberry and Blackberry Fund. Read on for a snapshot of activities and results from the 2020/21 marketing program.

The 2020/21 marketing plan aimed to increase the consumption of raspberries and blackberries beyond special occasions by encouraging Australians to use berries as part of their everyday meals, with a focus on breakfast. The key message to drive consumption was to ‘add some oomph’ with Australian raspberries and blackberries. Key marketing activities included the brand refresh, a strategic content partnership and social media.

Brand refresh

The new marketing campaign was launched in 2020/21 and encouraged consumers to ‘add some oomph’ to their meals with Australian raspberries and blackberries. The campaign focused on expanding berry consumption beyond special occasions to more frequent, everyday meals. Breakfast was the predominant focus, as consumer research highlighted that breakfast is ripe for opportunity representing only 15 per cent of current usage occasions (Source: FiftyFive5 consumer usage and attitudes study, 2019).

Mamamia content partnership

Australian Raspberries and Blackberries negotiated a content partnership with Mamamia, a popular news and lifestyle website that appeals to the campaign’s target audience of creative foodies. Mamamia provides a trusted environment with an engaged female audience, reaching 1.2 million women aged 35-44, with an average household income of $125,000 (versus the national average of $75,000).

• 77 per cent of Mamamia’s audience are responsible for all or most of the grocery buying for their households.
• 85 per cent of the Mamamia audience would think about buying something Mamamia has recommended.
• 97 per cent of Mamamia women are looking for food content inspiration and information.

Content was designed to engage with the target audience through a range of touchpoints such as website advertorials, website digital advertising, audio podcast sponsorship, and social media influencer activity.

Advertorials: Three advertorials were themed around simple changes to breakfast, lunch, and dinner using fresh raspberries and blackberries.  The tone of each article was light-hearted, and the suggested dishes were casual and easy to recall with just a few ingredients, encouraging readers to see raspberries and blackberries as an easy addition to their everyday routine. All articles performed well, over-delivering on page views (by +7 per cent, +10 per cent and +8 per cent, respectfully):

1. Breakfast Diaries: mamamia.com.au/breakfast-ideas-healthy/ Page views: 16,030, average view time: 1:27 min
2. Lunch Diaries: mamamia.com.au/work-lunches Page views: 16,453, average view time: 1:32 min
3. Dinner Diaries: mamamia.com.au/dinner-recipes-with-berries/ Page views: 16,230, average view time: 1:17 min

Digital advertising: Digital banners and branded video advertising were featured across the Mamamia network, with the objective of demonstrating how raspberries and blackberries are a simple yet exciting addition to breakfast.

Whilst awareness of Australian raspberries and blackberries was the priority, the ads generated 1,603 clicks through to the Australian Raspberries and Blackberries Facebook page, reflecting consumers’ intent to look for further recipe inspiration. The click through rate was 0.09 per cent – exceeding the industry standard of 0.06 per cent. Strong media click-through rates demonstrate that the messages resonated with the target audience.

Podcast sponsorship: Australian Raspberries and Blackberries performed a two-week sponsorship of ‘The Spill’ Mamamia podcast, in which the hosts highlighted how raspberries and blackberries are a must-have to elevate everyday meals. From the podcast and run-of-network (RON) audio sponsorship, there were the 177,900 audio downloads and opportunities to hear the messaging.

Social media influencers: Nielsen data shows that families under-trade in raspberry and blackberry purchases versus total fruit. To encourage greater uptake with the core target of families/ female grocery buyers, three social media influencers were selected to represent a variety of families, positioning raspberries and blackberries as the go-to solution to add excitement to everyday meals. The three influencers, @svpearce, @the_real_dads_of_Melbourne & @laurenbrant, achieved a combined post reach of over 750,000 consumer views.

Mamamia partnership results: The partnership with Mamamia was a great success, allowing the brand to gain media value of $402,000 for just $90,000 – a 446 per cent return on investment.

In addition to the activities mentioned above, the partnership provided the added benefit of consumer insights, with an online survey of 94 Mamamia users. The research showed a positive response to the new marketing creative, improving likelihood of purchase and lifting their opinion of Australian raspberries and blackberries.

After being exposed to the campaign, 77 per cent of respondents agreed they were more likely to purchase Australian raspberries and blackberries, and 74 per cent were excited to use them at breakfast.

Attitudes towards berries also improved, with more respondents perceiving berries as a healthy snack and ingredient, being Australian grown and easy to add into meals. Impressively, there was a jump in the percentage of respondents viewing the berries as good value for money – an important measure to increase the purchase frequency of Australian raspberries and blackberries, irrespective of price point.

Digital

Australian Raspberries and Blackberries social media positioned the berries as a quick and easy solution to add vibrancy, flavour and excitement to routine meals across Facebook (www.facebook.com/freshaussieberries) and Instagram (www.instagram.com/freshaussieberries/).

The Fresh Australian Berries social channels have achieved great engagement. Over the past year, the channels have achieved:

• A reach of 3.2 million, 4.1 million impressions and 20,200 engagements
• A strong engagement rate of 1.77 per cent (compared to industry benchmarks or 0.08 per cent engagement rate)
• Overwhelmingly positive sentiment across the page, with users sharing their love of berries and enthusiasm for Australian raspberry and blackberry recipes, demonstrated through sharing and saving of content.

New breakfast recipes were developed to promote raspberries and blackberries and were disseminated through paid social media advertising and are hosted on the Fresh Berries website (https://freshberries.com.au/).