Marketing snapshot - 2018/19

Hort Innovation is responsible for investing the citrus marketing levy into a range of activities to drive awareness and consumption of the fruit, under the Hort Innovation Citrus Fund. Read on for a snapshot of activities and results from 2018/19 which is focused on export markets.

Under the Taste Australia banner, 2018/19 saw a successful Australian citrus marketing campaign to help drive growth for the category in four key export markets: Japan, China, Vietnam and the Philippines. Taste Australia is the whole- of-horticulture brand used to increase the profile, sales and consumption of premium Australian horticulture products in export markets. The citrus campaign focused on in-store activity to drive timely awareness and consumption and was supported by social media.

Taste Australia retail marketing

• In Japan, in-store activities included 76 sampling days at several popular outlets as well as point-of-sale materials to promote Australian fruit to consumers. Participating importers (Wismettac, Royal, Kobe Yoko and Hiro) indicated they imported 8825 tonnes of Australian oranges throughout the season from July to October 2018. Other activities included a social media campaign across Instagram and Facebook to further encourage purchase of Australian citrus.
  
  
• In China, in-store activities included 198 sampling days at key outlets City Super, Ole and Hema, as well as point-of-sale materials. Taste Australia branding was featured on the Hema Fresh homepage and product page as part of an e-commerce program, as well as a product post on their WeChat channel ‘Moment’ and group chat. Taste Australia and Australian oranges were also featured on the Benlai homepage banner, campaign page and product page, as well as a mobile push notification with a link.
  
  
• In Vietnam, in-store activities included 96 sampling days at Mega Market, Aeon Mall and Big C as well as point-of-sale materials during August and September 2018. A Facebook campaign was run concurrently to further engage with potential customers. The outlet Big C indicated that they experienced a 422 per cent increase in the volume of sales over the season compared to the previous year.
  
  
• In the Philippines, 90 days of in-store activities were undertaken at the outlets Rustan and Shopwise, as well as the distribution of point-of-sale materials. A social media campaign was run in conjunction, including media seeding (the targeted distribution of content in social media networks via influencers or other online media), on Facebook and Instagram. More than three million opportunities for people to see the content were generated by Facebook paid advertisements. Of note was celebrity Ilya Villania’s Instagram story featuring Australian citrus which contributed another three million opportunities for people to see the content. The outlet Rustan indicated that they recorded an increase in the volume of sales of 21.4 per cent during the campaign.

Seasonal forecasting for Japan

Given that Japan is a sophisticated market, it was deemed appropriate to deliver seasonal forecast information via an online trade seminar in May 2019. A video capturing the key seasonal forecast information via citrus growers in Victoria was distributed to key export players. This was combined with statistics and industry commentary from Citrus Australia and Hort Innovation on the Taste Australia retail marketing program.