Avocado Marketing Update

About the marketing program

Horticulture Innovation Australia (HIA) 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.  This fortnightly update has been provided for Avocados Australia’s e-newsetter Guacamole 31 March 2017.

Social Media – Facebook

Social Media has continued to perform well for Australian Avocados, with sentiment in particular being very positive. Consumers have also been loving our original imagery, with a higher engagement rate when compared to the stylised stock imagery.

A recent recipe post for Avocado in Sweet Potato Boats from the 22nd March has been very successful, reaching over 450,000 people and getting 7,606 likes. The engagement has been incredible with 548 people reacting to it and nearly 800 shares.

Instagram

Consumers continue to show how creative they can be with avocados

Abbotts Bread partnership

Running throughout Queensland during the month of May, Avocados will be partnering with Abbotts bread promoting a couple of delicious and simple avocado on toast meal ideas. Over the duration of the campaign, over 640,000 loaves of bread will be produced featuring an eye-catching large bread tag reminding and inspiring consumers every time they grab their loaf of bread to use avocados in their meal creation.

Abbotts Bread Creative
Abbots Bread Creative. Pink box is where the bread tag will stick to the package.

Abbotts bread is George Weston Foods third biggest bread brand. The month of May was chosen to capitalise on Mother’s day and encouraging kids/husbands to make mum breakfast on Mother’s day. The creative is not limited to Mother’s day though, so it is relevant for the entire month.

This opportunity is being used as a trial and has the potential to be rolled out to other states if deemed successful, with Nielsen data to be used to measure the impact.

Mindfood magazine avocado promotion

We had a 6 page spread in the March edition of Mindfood magazine, which has a monthly national distribution of 65,000. The spread included recipes, buying and storage hints and health facts.

 

Qld Succession Planning Grants

Grant background

Queensland producers now have access to Farm Management grants of up to $2500 to help offset  the costs of professional advice associated with family business and succession planning thanks to the Queensland Government.

Costs eligible for the rebate

Costs eligible for the rebate include those for professional advice provided by suitably qualified professionals including for example, accountants, succession advisors or solicitors – view QRAA website’s Frequently Asked Questions or guidelines for more details.

Rebates of up to 50 per cent of the amount paid for professional advice, to a maximum of $2,500 for each financial year of the scheme, are available. To receive a rebate for a financial year, an application must be received in that year and may include an application made before professional advice is received.

Application deadlines

This scheme will close to applications 30 June 2019.  Download an application form here.

Further information

For further information on the Farm Management Grants including criteria visit www.qraa.qld.gov.au or freecall 1800 623 946.

New Avocados Australia website

Check out the new site now!  Click: www.avocado.org.au

Avocados Australia homepage image
Homepage of the new Avocados Australia website

After 18 months of planning and development, Avocados Australia has launched its new industry website, the Australian Avocado growers’ one-stop-shop for Best Practice Resources, news and industry updates.

With a crisp new look the new website provides easy, intuitive access to a wealth of information.  The new site includes an upgraded Best Practice Resource (BPR) with an extensive library of supporting resources and rich search functionality to easily extract information across the website.

Over the coming issues of Guacamole we will highlight some of the new features such as the Supply Chain Directory, Avocados Australia Members’ Section and new features in the BPR.

John Tyas, CEO of avocados Australia said, “Staff at Avocados Australia and our web developer have worked tirelessly for months to deliver what I think is an exception outcome.

“Our website says a lot about us as an organisation and as an important agricultural industry in Australia. The way the site has been designed and developed will also improve how we operate and manage information as a business.

“One of our core roles is to be the information hub for the Australian avocado industry and this new site will help us to do that better than ever before.  I am very proud of this new website and I hope our stakeholders make good use of it.”

Marketing Update

This update was provided by Horticulture Innovation Australia for Guacamole 20 March 2017.

As part of the strategy to inspire, engage and educate, a mix of delicious recipe ideas, relatable content and key messages were delivered via social media over the past two weeks.

Helping consumers understand how to identify and select a Shepard avocado: this benefits all growers regardless of variety, as the more consumers feel confident with avocados in general, the more comfortable they will be in selecting one that meets their needs. Education = confidence = better consumer experience = repeat purchase.

Post: “The Shepard season has begun…” on 2nd March 2017.  

Ad Metrics:
Reach – 168,520
Comments – 235′
Likes – 921
Reactions – 89
Shares – 68
Video Views – 52,175

 

 

 

 

A shout out to women in lieu of International Women’s day:

Post: “Tell the amazing women in your life…” on 5th March

Ad Metrics: Reach – 214,449 Comments – 281
Likes – 1,183
Reactions – 58
Shares – 44

 

 

 

 


Simple, delicious meal inspiration……
Post: “You’re stuffed? Stuff ‘em too!…” on 7th March 2017.

Ad Metrics:
Reach – 259,306
Comments – 409
Likes – 4,757
Reactions – 259
Shares – 313

 

 

 


Nutritional meal solution for Mum’s with young babies.
Post: “Baby’s first avo. All the info you need here…” on 12th March 2017.

Ad Metrics:
Reach – 54,345|
Comments – 41
Likes – 813
Reactions – 28
Shares – 24

 

 

 

Part of the Communications strategy is to work with partners who have a strong legion of followers to extend our content through and reach more consumers. One of such partners is content publisher “My Food Book” who promote recipes from top cooking & food brands to more than 2.8 million passionate home cooks each month and over 200,000 subscribers.

Avocado recipes, video files and product information is housed across their website and social channels to amplify our content reach.

Recently, this Avocado & lentil salad has been inspiring consumers.

†Recipe page views since activation of your current subscription year. *Social activity across pinterest, G+ and facebook since listing this recipe with myfoodbook as part of your subscription. Social figures do not include Twitter. ‡Actions on recipe: recipe saved into consumer account, exported as an ebook or shared by a consumer, since activation of your current subscription year.

Avocados feature in the latest e-cookbook “Good for you” released on 27th January this year. Of the 21 recipes, 9 of them feature avocados. There have been 18.5K downloads of the cookbook to date.