Marketing snapshot - Hortlink 2017, edition 1

This Hort Innovation Papaya Fund marketing snapshot has been taken from Hort Innovation’s Hortlink 2017, edition 1.

In the lead-up to Christmas and in early 2017, the papaya marketing program has had a sole focus on social media and public relations. In particular, frequent posts through the Facebook page (www.facebook.com/PapayaAustralia/) have seen high engagement and consistent growth in page likes.

Meanwhile, the second half of this year’s campaign is packed with activity, with major experiential opportunities being utilised, in-store demonstrations taking place and continuation of the papaya public relations and media campaign.

Late February and early April will see the marketing program display at the Pregnancy, Babies and Children’s Expo in Melbourne and Sydney respectively. At these events, the ‘Papaya Café’ will give out samples of papaya puree for all mums and babies and help educate families about the benefits and uses of the fruit. This will be the first time papaya has been showcased at the Melbourne event, while the Sydney event last year was a great success, with over 20,500 visitors (and numbers expected to increase this year).

The Expo provides a great way to educate and target the marketing campaign’s primary demographic of small, start-up and bustling families, with an emotional message that resonates with expecting mothers and new parents. It also provides an opportunity to show expecting and new mums how to use papaya as a cheap alternative to expensive baby food products, while focusing on the health messages for both mothers and babies

Media and public relations, including an autumn seasonal release, as well as social media, will play an active role throughout the second half of the annual marketing program. There will be education on the taste and health benefits of papaya with one-on-one top-tier media briefings involving a papaya grower.

In addition, there is to be a strong retailer engagement program, including distribution of point-of-sales recipe cards for promotion of papaya in stores.