Australian Avocados Marketing Update 2025

About the marketing program

This is the latest marketing activity that’s helping Aussie consumers connect with (and eat!) Australian avocados. The industry’s marketing is managed by Hort Innovation and funded by the avocado marketing levy. Hort Innovation develops consumer-focused promotions using a variety of mediums including social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram, as well as targeted partnerships with consumer-related publications and platforms.

Keep scrolling to see more great marketing activity in 2025.  And, if you are chasing some delicious avocado recipes, check out Australian Avocados.

 

Shepard Season Earned Media Campaign: Driving Awareness & Demand – 28 March 2025

 

Each year, the arrival of Shepard Avocados marks an exciting milestone in the Australian produce calendar, sparking conversation among consumers and media alike. This seasonal moment presents a unique opportunity to celebrate the variety’s unique qualities and inspire more Australians to embrace Shepard avocados, experiment with new recipes, and confidently choose them as a delicious and nutritious addition to their shopping baskets.

The earned media campaign has so far been highly successful in positioning Shepard avocados in a positive light through strategic media placements, influencer collaborations, and key partnerships.

A standout highlight of the campaign was our exclusive partnership with Sydney sandwich hotspot, Cross Section. The store offered a limited-edition ‘Shepard Avocado Delight’ sandwich to its customers, promoting the variety’s unique qualities. The recipe was also shared, inspiring Aussies to purchase Shepard avocados and recreate the sandwich at home.

Check out the Shepard Avocado Delight Recipe! 👉 HERE

More than 100 Shepard Avocado Delight sandwiches were sold during the two-week period, and the owners of Cross Section are now considering making the sandwich a permanent menu item during Shepard Avocado season.

The partnership was also attracted strong media attention, with head chefs Josh Said and Brent Wasserman interviewed about their use of Shepard avocados in their popular sandwich, providing an opportunity to highlight key attributes of the variety:

🥑  Creamy, Buttery Texture: Shepard Avocados spread perfectly when ripe, creating a protective layer that keeps bread from going soggy.

🥑 Balanced, Nutty Flavour: Their mild, nutty taste enhances other ingredients without overpowering them.

🥑 Stays Vibrantly Green: Unlike other avocados, Shepard Avocados never turn brown, even when cut, perfect for Instagram-worthy sandwiches.

🥑 Easy to Slice: Their smooth flesh guarantees flawless slices or chunks every time.


📈 Key results and coverage

Overall, the campaign generated significant media traction, with 47 pieces of media coverage, reaching a combined audience of more than 3.3 million. Every story reinforced the campaign’s core message – encouraging more Aussies to give Shepard avocados a go and positioning the fruit as a tasty and versatile ingredient for everyday meals.

Coverage highlights:

  • Sitchu promoted the Cross Section partnership and sandwich launch, reaching 1.1 million readers.
  • Sydney radio station 2GB interviewed North Queensland Avocado Farmer, Matt Kleyn, talking in a positive light about the Shepard variety’s attributes, its’ differences to Hass, and why people should give it a go. The coverage reached 1.9 million listeners.
  • ARN Regional Radio spoke with Cross Section’s owners about the benefits of Shepard avocados, and why they are the ‘official avocado of sandwiches’, reaching 21,000 listeners.
  • The ARN interview led to an article being syndicated across 40 of its regional online websites, hero-ing the Shepard and revealing the sandwich recipe with the campaign images. This additional coverage is estimated to have reached over 249,000 people.

The media campaign was further amplified by over 10 pieces of influencer content across both paid partnerships and organic user-generated content from Cross Section customers taking to Instagram and TikTok to shout about the limited-edition Shepard sandwich.

Foodie content creators, including @lil_eets (48.6k followers) and @cheftomwalton (389k followers), also took to their channels in partnership with Australian Avocados to share the Shepard Avocado Delight recipe, generating further buzz around the variety.

More Shepard features to come!

Alongside the online and broadcast coverage secured, top tier print publications have also expressed interest in featuring the Shepard avocado, with upcoming coverage including:

  • Better Homes and Gardens – Plan to feature the Shepard in their May issue (out April 11)
  • Australian Women’s Weekly – Impressed by the campaign, they are working to secure space in their next issue (out in April).
  • Gourmet Traveller – Would like to support the Shepard industry and are eager to cover the variety next season.

Shepard Avocados crowned official avocado for sandwiches – 14 March 2025

 

Social influencer @lil_eets and Sydney gourmet sandwich masters @crosssectionsyd have partnered with Australian Avocados to create a special bespoke sandwich featuring Shepard Avocados. ‘The Shepard Delight’ is on menus for two weeks from the 3 to 17 March. @Cheftomwalton recreated the recipe at home to show consumers how Shepard Avocados are a tasty and easy addition to your sandwich.

@lil_eets also created a chicken and avocado salad sandwich to inspire consumers to add avocados to their everyday meals.

Follow @AustralianAvocados on Instagram and make sure you share their posts!

Look out for the next issue of Talking Avocados magazine for detailed coverage of the results of the National Avocado Domestic Marketing program!

Go Green Gold results: July to December 2024 – 3 March 2025

 

 

Outdoor advertising

From July to December 2024, Australian Avocados leveraged both large-format and retail outdoor advertising to build awareness among consumers and drive purchase intent.

Large format outdoor had two key bursts, aligning with key cultural moments – the Olympics, and King Charles III’s arrival in Australia. Overall, messaging was featured across 61 digital panels across roadsides nationwide.

Complimenting large format, retail outdoor panels provided sustained exposure along the customer path to purchase, running from September to December across 1,854 locations near supermarkets and fresh food grocers.

Collectively, both outdoor formats contributed towards a significant reach of 10.2 million people, exposing 74% of main grocery buyers to the ad at least once across all markets.  Over 187 million impressions were also generated in total, reinforcing brand salience.


Digital retail media

Digital ads—including tiles, banners, and page cards—placed on Coles and Woolworths eCommerce sites targeted consumers at key decision-making moments. These ads reached 2.3 million new-to-brand consumers on Coles’ website and 127,000 new-to-brand customers on Woolworths’ site. During the campaign period, digital retail activity directly attributed to $23.3 million in avocado sales across both retailers’ websites.


Social media (paid)

An always-on social media presence from July to December 2024 leveraged a mix of short form videos, branded content, and influencer collaborations. A diverse range of creatives were utilised throughout the campaign period, including Olympic-themed green and gold messaging, recipes, avocado pairings, and influencer-led storytelling. Consistent rotation of creatives showcased the versatility of avocados while preventing creative fatigue. Across Meta and TikTok, over 62 million impressions were generated nationwide, reaching 7.7M and 2.1M users respectively.


Social media (owned)

From October to December, Australian Avocados’ owned Instagram, Facebook and TikTok channels, continued to engage audiences with original content, collectively reaching over 3.4 million people.

The sit-com style video series – The Adventures of Avo, Cado, and Pip- was posted as organic Instagram reels and TikTok videos, with two videos boosted as ads in December, reaching 2.8 million people and generating over 7,000 impressions.

Recipe content shared across influencer Lilian Eets’ TikTok, and the Australian Avocados Instagram, TikTok and Facebook pages, performed well, collectively receiving 12,690 engagements. Content shared on the Australian Avocados Facebook page, generated the greatest reach at over 2.8 million people.


Earned media

Australian Avocados capitalised on key cultural moments to highlight new usage occasions and generate widespread media coverage.

On National Avocado Day, the Corn Chip Safe Guacamole campaign captured the attention of the entire corn chip industry, with major brands responding to the newspaper print ad, helping to expand the reach.

To coincide with King Charles III’s visit to Australia, the royal avocado carriage campaign ran across 16 large-format sites in major eastern seaboard cities. In Sydney alone, the ad reached 1.225 million people (over a quarter of the population), with an average 2.3 exposures per person.

Overall, the campaigns generated 12 pieces of earned news coverage, with a total potential reach of over 5.8 million people.


Go Green Gold campaign steps up for the Shepard season – 31 Jan 2025

 

Marketing Plans for Shepard Avocado Season

With the Shepard avocado season upon us, the Hort Innovation marketing team are excited to announce the next phase of the Go Green Gold campaign, with creative switching next month to showcase the Shepard variety. Messaging will continue to highlight avocados taste, versatility, and health benefits, while increasing awareness among consumers that Shepard season is here.

To align with the season, activity will go live from week commencing 10 February, continuing through to April.

Paid media

To reach grocery buyers nationwide, activity across paid media includes:

    • Retail screens: Creative will feature on small-format retail panels near supermarkets and large format retail panels in shopping centres, targeting main grocery buyers at key shopping destinations nationwide.
    • Retail online: Content will appear across Coles and Woolworths website, including content cards, page banners, and single tiles. These placements will target shoppers browsing the fruit, vegetable, salad, and Mexican food aisles.
    • Paid social: Content will feature in-feed and in stories across Meta (Facebook and Instagram), as well as TikTok, inspiring Australians with avocado versatility and recipe ideas.

Earned media

We will launch a ‘heart and mind’ campaign, an earned-led initiative to create positive media coverage, generate buzz, and encourage Australians to embrace the Shepard variety.

Owned media

Building on strong results, we will continue leveraging successful content formats on social media with:

    • Recipe Inspiration content from Lil Eets:

Content creator Lil Eets will share Shepard-avocado specific recipes such as:

      • Shepard avocado, vegemite and cheese melt
      • Shepard avocado and dukkah eggs
      • Mexican Shepard avocado and corn salad
      • Shepard avocado and chicken summer salad.
    • Sitcom content series:

Our popular TikTok and Meta content series ‘The Adventures of Avo, Cado and Pip’ will introduce a new character, Miss Shepard, in an upcoming episode.

 

Domestic Marketing Results to date Media – 31 Jan 2025

    • Pipcom: Episode one on Meta reached 1.4 million people at an impressive cost-per-thousand (CPM) of $3.09, while on TikTok, it reached over 162k users at a CPM of $3.41.
    • Lil Eets: Content creator Lil Eets’ first three videos have achieved remarkable results since October reaching a combined 134 million users on Meta, at a CPM of $3.2, and 250k users on TikTok, at a CPM of $3.11.

All content will be boosted across the quarter with recipe and Pipcom content rotating bi-weekly. By focusing on high-impact content, we aim to maximise reach and engagement opportunities, particularly among light avocado buyers.

Note: Reach combines Australian and international audiences.

 

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Author: Anna Petrou
Date Published: 01/01/2025
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