Marketing snapshot - Hortlink 2018, edition 2

This Hort Innovation Sweetpotato Fund marketing snapshot has been taken from Hort Innovation’s Hortlink 2018, edition 2.

Hort Innovation is responsible for investing the sweetpotato marketing levy into a range of activities to grow awareness and consumption, under the Hort Innovation Sweetpotato Fund.

Campaign elements for 2018 are comprehensive, spanning a range of public relations (PR) activity, social media engagement, recipe content and sampling – and the first-ever advertising campaign for Australian Sweetpotatoes was also recently launched.

Advertising campaign

Advertising to increase sweetpotato awareness kicked off in February, including digital media, video content and a six-week run of advertising panels positioned just outside supermarket entrances to ensure sweetpotatoes were top of mind for shoppers. This panel activity involved more than 400 strategically placed screens, displaying Australian Sweetpotatoes campaign materials from mid-February to the end of March.

The campaign also included ‘simple, sweet and supercharged’ recipe ideas and print advertising/advertorials placed in leading magazines targeting main grocery buyers such as The Australian Women’s Weekly, New Idea and Mother & Baby.  This activity ran from February and, at the time of writing in mid-June, was due to conclude. Look for a wrap-up in the next edition of Hortlink

In-store sampling

To compliment the advertising activity, in-store sampling of sweetpotato fries took place in Coles and Woolworths supermarkets between February 26 and April 30, with a total of 230 sessions across Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth. To extend reach even further, there was also sweetpotato recipe sampling at The Essential Baby & Toddler Show held in Melbourne in late April, and the Sydney Pregnancy & Baby Show during May.

As well as showcasing sweetpotato recipe ideas, sampling sessions were an opportunity to educate shoppers about the health and nutritional benefits of sweetpotatoes, encourage direct purchase (including highlighting where the sweetpotatoes could be located in store), and leave consumers with an overall positive brand experience.

During August, Australian Sweetpotatoes will also be showcased at the Ekka (Royal Queensland Show) in Brisbane.

Other activity

The sweetpotato PR campaign continues to drive reach for sweetpotato messaging, with more than 10 million consumers reached in the year to date, with coverage appearing in high-profile publications and outlets including The Daily Telegraph, 2UE radio, Kidspot and Body + Soul.

The Australian Sweetpotato social media channels of Facebook and Instagram – added recently – also continue to grow. In April alone, Facebook activity reached more than one million people and the Instagram fanbase is rising, with fans more than doubling month on month. With these engaged audiences, the social media channels share recipes, general food-inspiration and a connection to Australia’s sweetpotato growers.

In other activity of note, during June sweetpotato recipes and content continued to feature on the MyFoodBook online recipe and cookbook community (www.myfoodbook.com.au). This has included sweetpotato recipes and information being featured in a free winter cookbook, available here.