About the marketing program

Horticulture Innovation Australia (Hort Innovation) manages the avocado levy-funded marketing program in Australia. They develop consumer-focused promotions using a variety of mediums including social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and YouTube as well as targeted partnerships with consumer related publications and platforms.

Facebook activity

April was a month of recipe reinvention and excitement for the new Hass season, with the Facebook page (www.facebook.com/AustralianAvocados/) performing exceptionally well. In fact, the page achieved its second-highest results in the social media campaign to date, reaching some 1.24 million consumers, with close to 790,000 people directly engaging with the brand across the month.

The top performing video post for April featured vibrant new Hass avocados getting ready to reach consumers.

Another top-performing piece of content was a video that is still performing well since being posted in February, showcasing the joy of eating avocados. The simple post captures the feeling of ‘When the avo is perfectly ripe and you don’t have to share’, through a child dancing behind a screen of avocados.

The most recent post (as at 23 May 2017) to be made to the page was for Mother’s Day, which was seen by more than 98,040 people – with around 3600 of these viewers engaging with the post in some way (liking, commenting or sharing). Among the activity, more than 50 consumers were inspired to share the post to their own Facebook pages and friends.

Digital campaign

Running since March, the digital marketing and advertising campaign for Australian Avocados reaches consumers across the web, through desktop computers, mobile phones and tablets.

One of the campaign’s key elements involves 15-second and 30-second Australian Avocados video advertisements, which are run before and within streaming video content on premium ‘catch-up’ sites such as 9Now, Ten Play and Plus 7. These sites allow people to view programs they have missed on television, and are free to watch.

So far the videos are delivering strong results, with 98 percent of people watching the 15-second ad through to the end, and 90 percent of viewers receiving the full message of the 30-second ad – ‘completion rates’ that are above industry benchmarks. It is expected these great results will continue, as popular television shows such as The Voice and MasterChef now driving highly engaged audiences to the catch-up services. You can view a variety of Australian Avocados videos on the YouTube channel.

Other digital activity includes the use of Australian Avocado ads, which are specifically targeted to people who are viewing or searching avocado-specific and avocado-related content online (eg: ‘healthy lunch ideas’). The ads drive people to the Australian Avocado website, to view avocado recipes, tips and articles (www.australianavocados.com.au).

This digital activity of combined video on catch up TV and contextual Avocado ads on mobile platforms has so far been viewed (as at 23 May 2017) by 1,743,000 people since the campaign began.

This update was provided by Horticulture Innovation Australia for Guacamole 26 May 2017.