Marketing snapshot - Hortlink 2018, edition 2

This Hort Innovation Macadamia Fund marketing snapshot has been taken from Hort Innovation’s Hortlink 2018, edition 2.

Hort Innovation is responsible for investing the macadamia marketing levy into a range of activities to drive awareness and consumption, under the Hort Innovation Macadamia Fund. This activity is managed by our partner team at the Australian Macadamia Society, which has provided the below update on recent domestic and international activity over the autumn months…

CONSUMER CAMPAIGN HIGHLIGHTS

Inaugural International Women’s Day campaign

This year, International Women’s Day (March 8) was incorporated into the consumer campaign in China for the first time, with strong results. The activity, executed via Weibo and WeChat, encouraged Chinese women to take good care of their health, in line with the overarching Australian Macadamias Chinese brand message of ‘Beauty from the inside out’.

The campaign centrepiece offered Chinese fans the chance to win a private macadamia degustation at a Beijing restaurant, prepared by a high-profile food blogger popular among the target market of young, modern and progressive women. His social media following of more than five million fans substantially amplified the message.

The degustation event was a huge success, and featured an eight-course menu with macadamias in every dish. The evening was captured in a video that was shared across the collaborating blogger’s social media channels, as well as our own.

All campaign targets were exceeded, with thousands of engagements achieved across all social media channels, and more than 800,000 impressions generated collectively across Weibo and WeChat.

Celebrating ‘White Day’ in South Korea and Taiwan

White Day, falling a month after Valentine’s Day, is a popular celebration of love in many Asian markets. To engage a younger female audience in South Korea, this year Australian Macadamias celebrated White Day with a twist, inviting single women to tag their single friends on the South Korean Facebook page for Australian Macadamias, for the chance to win macadamia prizes.

In Taiwan, fans were encouraged to post a romantic message on the Facebook page on White Day, and recipes were also shared for those wanting to celebrate the day in macadamia style, with the activity reaching 24,000 people.

Mother’s Day with macadamias

Mothers’ Day is always a strong promotional opportunity for macadamias. This year Mother’s Day content was shared in all markets, including recipes, health and beauty information, and competitions.

In Australia:

• A new recipe was released for macadamia filled pastry roses
• The ongoing collaboration with popular Australian blogger and nutritionist Live Love Nourish was leveraged, with the creation of an exclusive Mother’s Day recipe for macadamia scones with jam and macadamia cream, complete with a ‘how to make’ video
• A new blog post was produced, explaining how to make the perfect scone for mum, with macadamias adding a touch of luxury to a classic recipe. This was also promoted in the industry’s consumer e-newsletter.

In Germany:

• A German version of the macadamia pastry roses was released, and scone inspiration
• A Mother’s Day recipe for macadamia and pomegranate cake was shared from popular German blog Kuechensprint.

In Japan:

• There was a focus on macadamias as a beautiful gift for mums
• This Mother’s Day blog post outlined the key health benefits of macadamias and referenced recent Japanese research that revealed “handmade dishes or cake or anything handmade by kids” as one of the most popular gifts with mothers
• This was leveraged by encouraging fans to think beyond flowers for Mother’s Day, with the suggestion of some delicious and healthy macadamia recipes as the perfect gift, paired with a macadamia hand cream or beauty oil.

In Taiwan and South Korea:

• The love of interactive games was tapped into, with fun Mother’s Day Macadamia Facebook games
• In Taiwan, consumers were invited to share a message of love for their mother for the chance to win a macadamia prize
• In South Korea, fans were asked to pick their favourite Mother’s Day gift to be in the running for a prize.
  
  

TRADE CAMPAIGN HIGHLIGHTS

Rollout of the Australian macadamia industry’s ‘Innovation Initiative’ continued, with the release of a significant new body of consumer research.

The new consumer research commissioned by the industry has revealed fresh insights that highlight key innovation hotspots for macadamias in the bakery category in both Asian and Western markets. The study found:

• Consumers seek out bakery products for eight key reasons: pleasure, adventure, discernment, joy, connection, comfort, control, and balance

• Western consumers prefer sweet bakery products while in Asia, savoury bakery products dominate

• Consumers often feel conflict when buying a bakery product, with guilt, cost reservations and quality concerns all creating barriers in consumers’ minds

• The presence of macadamias in a product breaks down these barriers, elevating the eating experience and making consumers perceive the product as more luxurious, unique, healthy, balanced, desirable, pure or authentic

• There are five key product innovation opportunities for macadamias in the bakery category:
  
  
• ARTISANAL INDULGENCE: Consumers want the back-to-basics appeal of hand-crafted items based on tradition and passion. Macadamias can add natural health associations, authenticity and exclusivity to a product.
  
  
• SENSORIAL LUXURY: Bakery products can offer escape through indulgence. Macadamias can add exclusivity, complexity and desirability.
  
  
• TRANSFORMING ORDINARY INTO EXTRAORDINARY: Consumers want to see comforting old favourites reinvented with new ingredient combinations. Macadamias can add uniqueness, intrigue and premium-ness.
  
  
• BETTER-FOR-YOU BAKERY: Consumers look for cues that signal a bakery treat is healthy enough to justify the indulgence. Macadamias can add permissibility, reassurance and justification.
  
  
• AUSTRALIAN PROVENANCE: Asian consumers trust food from safe origins like Australia. Macadamias can add purity, safety and trust.

These trends are now available to the industry’s commercial sector via the Macadamia Marketing Toolkit, to provide bakery product developers with evidence of the benefits that macadamias can bring to the category.

Details of all recent marketing activities are regularly published on the Australian Macadamia Society website here.