Marketing snapshot - Hortlink 2018, edition 2

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

Hort Innovation is responsible for investing the persimmon marketing levy into a range of activities to grow awareness and consumption, under the Hort Innovation Persimmon Fund.

As reported in the last edition of Hortlink, in collaboration with industry Hort Innovation developed a new, two-year strategic approach for persimmon marketing that has come into effect for the current season. And it’s been an exciting time so far – with a new recipe photoshoot, fact sheets, recipe cards, educational material, influencer hampers and media outreach, the campaign has reached more than four million people so far, with a lot more to come.

Campaign objectives

Goals of the current campaign are to…

• Continue to increase consumer knowledge and awareness of persimmons
• Celebrate the seasonality
• Reinforce usage occasions
• Increase demand for persimmons.

The strategy involves inspiring consumers – sparking Australia’s curiosity and exciting them about persimmons – and also educating consumers – giving them the confidence to try persimmons for the first time, or buy them again, with a focus on taste, varieties, selection, usage, storage and seasonality, with nutrition as a supporting message.

New recipe materials

For the season, four existing Persimmons Australia recipes have been freshened up with new photography in line with current trends, giving them a stronger visual appeal.

The recipes include persimmon and prawn rice paper rolls, persimmon and herb chicken salad, ginger persimmon cookies and honey baked persimmons, and can be seen in the recipe section of the industry website.

As well as being available to consumers through the website, and being promoted through social media, the new images have been and continue to be used to pitch fresh new persimmon content to Australian media outlets.

Media outreach

At the season outset, key persimmon messaging was used to engage key media, with a media release and tip sheet widely distributed to educate media and their audiences on persimmons and their unique quality. The tip sheet includes information on varieties, availability, growing regions, how to pick and how to eat the fruit.

In the early days of this season’s campaign, hampers were also sent to 11 key media and social media ‘influencers’, featuring fresh sweet and original persimmons, the media release, tip sheet and recipe cards. Targets included Woman’s Day, New Idea, Nine Kitchen, Body + Soul, Best Recipes, Nourish Naturally, The Lebanese Plate, Healthy Eating Jo, Nourish Everyday and The Barefoot Housewife.

Coverage to date from the hamper and other media outreach activity has included…

Social media:

• Healthy Eating Jo created a dish using the hamper delivery on Instagram and Facebook
• Nourish Naturally featured the hamper across various Instagram posts, and continues to share stories memories from a persimmon farm tour (see some here). The social media personality also made a batch of persimmon cookies and continues to share images from her fans being inspired to buy and use persimmons
• Nourish Everyday featured a sponsored post on Instagram
• The Lebanese Plate featured a sponsored post on Instagram

Web coverage:

• Fresh Plaza published an article and interview with Persimmons Australia President Brett Guthrey here
• The Senior published the rejuvenated honey-baked persimmons recipe here
• Life Begins At published the press release, tips and images here
• Better Homes & Gardens published persimmon tips here

In print, the Australian Women’s Weekly – which reaches more than 1.4 million people – also included info on persimmons.

As at mid-June, persimmon coverage in web and traditional media had reached some 8.8 million Australians combined, well above the five million target, with a further reach of 3.8 million in social media coverage. A full breakdown will be made available at the end of the campaign.

At the time of writing, a host of other coverage was also expected, including an exclusive persimmon curry recipe in Woman’s Day, four recipes in The Daily Telegraph’s BW Magazine, plus inclusion on the Westfield website, The Canberra Weekly Magazine, New Idea.

Social media activity

The Persimmons Australia Facebook and Instagram accounts have been back up and running for the season, with posts starting on March 15 and generated plenty of engagement with persimmon fans and Australian consumers.

The announcement of the persimmons season was a popular post on both platforms, while the new recipes were among the top-performing Facebook posts in the first couple of months of activity, with the rice paper rolls taking out the top spot. On Instagram, the initial top-performing post was a shot of freshly picked original persimmons taken straight from the farm. This image was shot on location during a persimmons orchard famil for media. The rich colour and sheer abundance of persimmons got the audience excited to buy and helped them connect with the farmers who grow the fruit.