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.

 

New National Brand Campaign Aims to Drive Avocado Consumption Among Light Buyers – 9 June 2025

 

Hort Innovation, in collaboration with creative agency Thinkerbell, have launched a bold new brand campaign to drive top-of-mind awareness and consideration of Australian Avocados – particularly among light buyers.

Why a new campaign?
The previous Our Green Gold campaign successfully built awareness and distinctiveness for the brand but did not quite move the needle on consideration. This new campaign addresses that gap – drawing on insights from Hort Innovation’s data, Thinkerbell’s behavioural science approach, and creative strategy.

The insight behind the idea
Australians are looking to satisfy cravings for rich, creamy tastes and textures and eat healthily. Australian Avocados tick both boxes. The campaign taps into this dual desire with the proposition: Australian Avocados are delicious nutritious.

The idea: Avo-Can-Do

“Avocados are the fruit that can do both. They are delicious and nutritious. They’re the can-do fruit that puts you in a can-do frame of mind. So, you can-do whatever you want to do.”

The campaign aims to show that Aussie Avocados can-do pretty much anything, including inspiring a can-do attitude.

“Can-do anything” – Avocados are the ultimate all-rounder. From soups, salads, and sandwiches to heart health, mood-boosting benefits, and good fats – avocados can-do anything.

“Can-do attitude” – This emotional layer brings an uplifting, playful tone to the campaign, expanding its appeal beyond recipes to inspire and connect with consumers on a deeper level.

Where you’ll see it
The campaign is now live across Out-of-Home, Retail Online Media, and Social Media. Radio will hit the airwaves in June, followed by film assets launching in July.

Here’s how the campaign will roll out across key paid media channels:

  • TV: 15-second spots on Channel 7, 9 and 10 across Metro 5 to generate mass campaign reach and impact.
  • Digital TV: Running across YouTube and Prime Video, with pre-rolls, bumpers and Shorts targeting engaged viewers using sign-in demographic data, interests, and purchase intent.
  • Social media: Meta and TikTok will drive campaign frequency through in-feed, Stories, and Explore placements.
  • Outdoor: A range of formats including retail, large format, transit, and street furniture will ensure high visibility in key locations.
  • Audio: Broadcast radio ads (15” and 30”) will air on NOVA and Smooth FM, while Spotify will run podcast pre- and mid-roll ads with mobile display assets. Audio will be tactically placed to find people in habitual listening moments with a focus on breakfast/morning/afternoon/drive day parts in all markets. On Spotify, ads will aim to reach habitual podcast listeners.
  • Retail online media: Targeted digital display ads on Coles360 and Cartology will serve reminders near the point of purchase – across relevant categories like fruit and veg, Mexican, cheese, bread, chips, international food and salad.

Success so far!

So far, the campaign is successfully conveying the appealing duality of Australian Avocados as a tasty, nutritious fruit. According to Cubery creative testing research:

  • Avo-Can-Do, as a brand platform, resonates with consumers – rating 21 points above the Cubery norm of 52.
  • The overall look and feel is working with bold visuals and distinctive branding cutting through the noise and boosting appetite appeal.
  • Out-of-home placements are showcasing avocado’s taste, versatility, and duality, and bolstering nutrition perceptions.
  • Film assets are captivating, compelling, and connect well with consumers, rating in the top 3% of film executions tested by Cubery.

With its catchy, creative concept and wide-reaching media mix, the campaign is set to boost top-of-mind awareness and drive consideration of Australian Avocados. Stay tuned for the film assets launch in July – and watch as the Avo-Can-Do So Can You message spreads nationwide!

 

Avocados FY26 Domestic Marketing Plan Overview – 23 May 2025

The FY26 Domestic Marketing Plan aims to increase domestic consumption of avocados to 150,000t by 2026, while supporting profitable farm gate prices. The focus is on increasing purchase frequency among light buyers to increase overall household penetration and make avocados a consistent addition to the weekly shop of Australians nationwide.

Access the Avocados FY26 Domestic Marketing Plan HERE.

 

Avocados marketing campaign delivers strong performance in FY25 – 9 May 2025

Australia’s domestic avocado marketing campaign for FY25 is wrapping up with impressive results so far, driving strong awareness, engagement and purchase intent among Australian consumers. Delivered by Hort Innovation, the campaign is supporting the industry’s goal of increasing domestic consumption to 150,000 tonnes by 2026 while contributing to profitable farmgate returns for growers.

By focusing on light buyers and highlighting the taste, versatility and everyday appeal of avocados, the campaign has delivered top-of-mind awareness through paid, earned and owned media activity.

Out-of-home (OOH) advertising

Out-of-home placements have so far played a central role in the campaign by driving mental availability and high visibility across both large and small format media.

Large format OOH:

  • Olympic-themed creative was showcased on 61 high-impact digital sites nationally during the Paris Olympics, creating buzz and aligning with a key cultural moment.

Small format OOH/Retail OOH:

  • Over 6,000 digital panels were positioned near supermarkets and grocers from July 2024 to March 2025, with a 70% metro / 30% regional split reflecting population density.

So far, large and small format OOH activity has reached over 10 million Australians and delivered more than 187 million impressions, with the average consumer exposed to avocado messaging 18 times.

Retail digital displays – e-commerce 

Digital advertising across Coles and Woolworths online platforms effectively targeted consumers searching for fruit, vegetables, and complementary items like Mexican food and chips. This e-commerce activity supported in-store messaging and helped drive conversion close to the point of purchase.

Across the campaign period, $195 million in avocado sales were recorded at both retailers. Online accounted for 10 per cent of Woolworths sales and 7 per cent at Coles. The strong sales growth was driven by new-to-brand shoppers and increased average spend across the board.

Paid social media

Paid social media activity on Meta and TikTok extended campaign reach to more than 18 million. Always-on short-form video assets and long-form creator content, including creator-led recipe videos, helped reinforce avocados as a versatile, everyday food. TikTok proved particularly effective in reaching younger demographics, delivering incremental reach and engagement. Content that positioned avocados close to the point of consumption resonated particularly well and helped strengthen engagement.

Earned Media

The campaign strategically leveraged culturally relevant moments to capture media attention, highlight new usage occasions, and spark conversation:

  • Corn chip safe guacamole (National Avocado Day): Partnering with chef Toby Wilson of Rico’s Tacos, the campaign launched the world’s first “corn chip-safe guacamole,” attracting widespread media coverage including a Daily Telegraph print ad and responses from major chip brands. Potential reach: 3.4 million.
  • Royal avocado carriage (King Charles III’s visit): A cheeky activation during the King’s visit to Sydney saw commemorative ‘avocado carriage’ featured on 16 donated large-format billboards across Sydney. Estimated reach: 2.5 million, seen an average of 2.3 times.
  • Shepard avocado season: A limited-edition Shepard Avocado Delight sandwich, developed with viral Sydney sandwich shop Cross Section, helped shift sentiment around the variety. Influencers Lil Eets and Tom Walton amplified the activation on social media, leading to the sandwich being dubbed the “official sandwich of the season.” Estimated reach: 3.8 million.

Across the three earned media moments, 26 pieces of news coverage were generated, with a combined potential reach of over 8 million Australians to date.

Owned Media

Owned media channels — including the Australian Avocados Instagram and TikTok pages — kept the brand front-of-mind year-round through entertaining, educational and inspiring content.

A key highlight was the launch of “Pipcom”, a TikTok-native mini-sitcom starring quirky characters Avo, Cado and Pip. The series cleverly embedded health, taste and versatility messages while engaging viewers in a fun, relatable way. Pipcom reached 6.78 million users with strong engagement and positive sentiment.

Complementing this, aesthetic ASMR-style recipe videos produced by influencer Lil Eets delivered an additional 4.65 million in reach across both brand and creator channels, with users resonating with Lilian’s easy, everyday avocado recipes.

Overall, owned media content has achieved a reach of 5.8 million on Meta, 2.9 million on TikTok, with over 16,522 cumulative engagements across all social channels.

Wrapping up

With more than 18 million reached via paid social, over 10 million through out-of-home, and millions more via earned and owned content, the FY25 campaign to date has significantly strengthened consumer awareness, cultural relevance, and purchase intent for Australian Avocados.

AVO-CAN-DO: A Fresh Take on Australian Avocados

The Hort Innovation Avocado Brand Team and creative agency Thinkerbell, in close collaboration with the Avocado Market Development  Panel, are proud to launch a bold new brand campaign for Australian Avocados – AVO-CAN-DO, So Can You.

Rooted in the insight that Australian Avocados are both delicious and nutritious, the new brand campaign brings these dual benefits to life, highlighting that – because Australian Avocados can do pretty much anything, so can you!

Hitting the key proof points of taste, versatility, and health, the AVO-CAN-DO campaign is all about inspiring Australians to channel their own “can-do” spirit.

A Campaign That Cuts Through

The campaign creative has recently undergone testing via research agency Cubery with overwhelmingly positive results. The campaign outperformed all metrics, +21 above the Cubery rating norm of 52, showing the strength of the idea, with brand positioning noted as ownable and enduring. Visually, the brand’s distinctive assets and bold design resonated well with consumers, delivering the cut-through, while also driving appetite appeal with strong, mouth-watering visuals.

Both film and radio executions of the campaign also tested above Cubery norms, successfully landing product benefits with a dose of bold humor. The messaging is clear while being memorable and entertaining. The film execution outperformed all film narratives, ranking within the top 3% of all films tested by Cubery.

Rolling Out Nationwide

The campaign is now live across Out-of-Home panels and social media, with film and radio assets in production and set to go live across June and July – stay tuned for further updates!

 

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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