Marketing snapshot - 2020/21

Hort Innovation is responsible for investing the summerfruit marketing levy into a range of activities to drive awareness and consumption, under the Hort Innovation Summerfruit Fund. Here’s a quick look at some of the activities and achievements of 2020/21.

DOMESTIC MARKETING

The objective of the Australian Summerfruit marketing program was to encourage more people to eat more Summerfruit more often. Key activities included a media partnership with Channel Nine and a shopper media and activation program in retail channels.

A brand sentiment survey was also conducted at the end of the season to understand how brand attitudes and perceptions had shifted to help inform future marketing plans, and measure changes in consideration and preference for Australian summerfruit.

Nine Media Partnership

A communications platform - ‘Rediscover Summer with Australian Summerfruit’, was developed in partnership with Nine to drive relevance and consideration with consumers. The partnership ran from November 2020 to March 2021 and was a first for the summerfruit industry. Activities involved many consumer media touchpoints including broadcast television coverage and online articles. The Nine partnership delivered $503,000 worth of media value from an investment of $160,000, generating a media value ROI (return on investment) of 314 per cent.

Broadcast television

Broadcast television showcased three Australian Summerfruit recipes. Over 240,000 people viewed the segment which aired in early December 2020, of which 62,822 people were main grocery buyers aged 25-54. A follow up article supporting the segment across Channel Nine’s digital channels received 2,456 page views with a dwell time of 2.45 minutes which demonstrates that the content was relevant and engaging.

This segment was a great feature early in the campaign to drive mass awareness at the beginning of the summerfruit season. The follow up article provided additional page views and a strong dwell time, reinforcing key branded messages and inspiring the audience to use a variety of Australian summerfruit in their recipes.

9Honey editorial sponsorship

An editorial sponsorship with 9Honey, a leading online lifestyle platform, created three Everyday Kitchen recipes with food editor Jane De Graff. The recipe videos were featured on 9Honey’s homepage and were amplified across their Facebook and Instagram accounts. Overall, the Everyday Kitchen videos and articles performed well, exceeding the page view target by 8 per cent and dwell time benchmark of 2 minutes, ensuring that that content was well received by the target audiences.

Written content

Australian Summerfruit was featured across four paid articles that extended the ‘Rediscover Summer’ messaging to highly-engaged foodie audiences on the Good Food and 9Honey Kitchen website pages. The articles featured a call to action that encouraged readers to purchase Australian summerfruit, with a click through to recipes to make it even easier for audiences to include summerfruit in their upcoming meals.

The page views exceeded the Nine network target by 16 per cent across all content.  Written content on 9Honey and Good Food is benchmarked at 1-2 minutes. All Australian summerfruit articles were well over the benchmark, with the Good Food articles exceeding the benchmark by an average of 5.34 minutes which suggests that the article content was engaging.

Digital display advertising

Digital advertising was placed across 9Honey and Good Food sites using shopper data to target key audiences with the Australian Summerfruit brand message and content assets. The high impact nature of the display drove click through rates (CTRs) well above the display benchmark of 0.06 per cent at 1.19 per cent and 1.22 per cent across Good Food and 9Honey websites respectively. The CTRs were similar across both 9Honey and Good Food, demonstrating the impact of the creative which successfully engaged both audiences and made them stop and think about Australian Summerfruit when they are looking for recipe and food ideas.

Retail media program

Retailer media channels across Coles and Woolworths were leveraged to reach Australian summerfruit shoppers whilst close to the point of purchase and influence behaviour.

Coles

In Coles online, an Australian Summerfruit branded tile was live for four weeks during January and February 2021. The branded tile was displayed 292,208 times and received a click through rate of 0.81 per cent with 931 items ‘added to trolley’, which is the strongest measure of intent to purchase.

A magazine advertorial page was also featured in the free Coles Magazine which has a readership of over 4.8 million Australian shoppers. Research shows that 71 per cent of readers have reported that they have purchased ingredients because they were featured in the magazine (Source: Coles).

Woolworths

Digital activity with Woolworths generated 3.4 million impressions (opportunities to see the content) and exposed 1.6 million unique shoppers to the brand. The target audience was reached with 46 per cent of media placement directed to shoppers who had purchased from the category in the 12 weeks prior, ensuring communications were directed to shoppers with a high propensity to buy. As a result, $556k of sales came from shoppers who purchased the product during the campaign period demonstrating the impact of this activity on sales.

Digital front of store screens were live for two weeks from 13 January 2021 to 19 January and 27 January to 2 February, 2021. The screens delivered 3.04 million opportunities to see the content, reaching 1.59 million unique visitors. This activity contributed to $348,111 in dollar sales and had a positive effect on converting light buyers into the category.

Woolworths online search display banner was live from 6 January to 2 February 2021. The banner advertisement delivered 334.8K in impressions, reaching 181.8K unique visitors and generating 1,064 clicks. This activity contributed to $270,702 in dollar sales and 468K units ordered.

EXPORT MARKETING

The export marketing program supported two key export markets: China and Malaysia. The Taste Australia Retail Marketing campaign included point-of-sale materials (POSM), consumer promotions and sampling, social media, influencer activity, e-commerce marketing, and trade marketing support.

China: In China, 458 sampling sessions were delivered across four retailers and 29 stores from December 2020 through to March 2021, supported by Taste Australia branded POSM material and Gift With Purchase (GWP) promotional items during the key promotional period of Chinese New Year.

The social media program, which aimed to drive awareness of the variety of Australian Summerfruit at the beginning of the season, delivered a total of 12.07 million impressions (opportunities to see the campaign), and reached over three million Chinese users. This was done through a series of articles on the Taste Australia WeChat page, supported by paid media over the Chinese New Year period.

The social media campaign was rounded out with Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) engagement where Australian Summerfruit recipe content posted on Weibo accounts reached over 9 million followers combined. This program format ensured that Australian Summerfruit program communicated key messages where Chinese consumers were present online.

In targeting online retail, the Summerfruit program extended to leading e-commerce platform, Freshippo, with Taste Australia branded Summerfruit product pages across two major regions in China, Shanghai and Guangzhou / Shenzhen.

Malaysia: In the Malaysian market, a total of 71 sampling sessions were delivered across 37 stores at four retailers launched at the beginning of February and continued through month finishing at Lantern Festival. Supporting Point of Sale Material (POSM) and Gift With Purchase (GWP) were implemented in 133 stores.

The Taste Australia Malaysian Facebook channel generated over 12 million impressions (opportunities to see the content) and a unique audience reach of over 3 million, ensuring that consumers were made aware of Australian Summerfruit in market.

Overall, the 2021 Summerfruit campaign in Malaysia contributed to a sell through of 14.7 tonnes of Australian Summerfruit. An influencer and public relations program was deployed to support the retail program, with a social media competition, static and video content, media kits, resulting in 34 clippings across English, Chinese and Malaysian language media.

To support trade partners, a suite of social media assets promoting Australian Summerfruit were distributed with retailers, distributors and buyers. These assets were useful for importers to connect with their customers to support the program. Through ecommerce initiatives, the program was able to identify and target shopper groups through online retailer platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp to drive sales. These initiatives were highly successful, with some conversion rates exceeding 14 per cent.