Hort Innovation is responsible for investing the avocado marketing levy into a range of activities to drive awareness and consumption. Here is a quick look at what happened during the year in domestic markets...

The 2025/26 domestic marketing program focused on increasing how often Australian households buy avocados, particularly among lighter buyers. The strategy was built around the idea that Australian Avocados are both delicious and nutritious, and aimed to keep avocados top of mind, build confidence in choosing and using them, and create more reasons to add them to everyday meals.

Our activity was delivered through three areas: a broad consumer campaign to connect with shoppers and prompt purchase; consumer education to help people select, ripen, store and use avocados correctly; and channel expansion through foodservice, encouraging chefs and venues to put more Australian avocados on menus.

Insights that drove our thinking  

• Avocados are already bought by most Australian households, but there is room to increase how often people buy them. Annual household penetration was strong at around 74 per cent, while four-week penetration was much lower at around 37 per cent, showing an opportunity to move avocados into the regular shop more often.
• Avocados were not always front of shoppers’ minds before they entered the store. Unprompted purchase intent was low at 11 per cent, but increased to 45 per cent when consumers were prompted, highlighting the need to remind people to put avocados on the shopping list before and during the shop.
• Avocados perform strongly on the needs consumers look for in fresh produce. They are seen as tasty, quick and easy, and healthy and nutritious, giving the campaign a strong platform to talk about both flavour and health in a simple, motivating way.
• Ripeness and quality remain significant barriers. Four of the top five barriers to buying more avocados related to the product experience, including not being in the right state of ripeness, going off too quickly, poor quality and bruising easily.
• Foodservice was also a significant opportunity, representing around 22 per cent of fresh domestic supply. Building chef and operator confidence in using avocados helps grow menu usage and can also inspire consumers with new ways to use avocados at home.

What did the campaign achieve?  

Building mass awareness and prompting purchase

Avo-Can-Do was the domestic brand campaign, designed to get light buyers thinking about avocados more often and to give them more reasons to choose Australian avocados. The campaign positioned avocados as delicious, nutritious and versatile, and appeared across TV, YouTube, streaming services, radio, outdoor advertising, Meta, TikTok, owned social, publicity moments and retail advertising, keeping Australian avocados visible from the home to the point of purchase.

• Screens: Television reached 6.1 million Australians, YouTube reached 4.9 million and subscription streaming reached 362,000.
• Outdoor advertising: reached 10.6 million Australians and delivered 156.2 million views, including around 45 million in regional markets.
• Audio: reached 7.84 million Australians and delivered 98.2 million listens, supported by more than 1,100 bonus placements.
• Social media advertising: delivered 105 million combined impressions (the number of times our campaign content was displayed to people). Meta reached 6.7 million Australians and TikTok reached 2.9 million.
• Retail advertising: ran across Woolworths and Coles to prompt purchase close to the point of sale. During active campaign periods, avocado attracted 734,000 new buyers and generated $3.9 million in new sales at Woolworths. Coles delivered strong engagement, with in-aisle click-through-rates meeting benchmarks.  
• Publicity moments: National Avocado Day and Shepard season activity helped keep the Avo-Can-Do message in the media and gave consumers timely reasons to think about and use avocados.
• Owned social content: seven creators produced 35 posts across Instagram, Facebook and TikTok. Content generated 23.7 million video views, reached 10 million users and delivered 79,700 engagements, up 63,000 on FY25.

Brand tracking showed Avo-Can-Do was easy to understand, believable and different. Useful meal ideas, timely trends and creator content helped people save, share and engage with avocado inspiration.

Educating consumers

Are You Bruisin’ While Choosin’? was the consumer education activity for the year. It aimed to change the way shoppers check avocados for ripeness by encouraging them to gently check the neck rather than squeeze the middle, helping reduce bruising and improve the eating experience.

The campaign used a playful behaviour-change idea featuring Eddie Williams, Australia’s strongman, to show that if someone with that much strength can handle an avocado gently, shoppers can too. The message was brought to life through a music video, social content, influencer partnerships, public relations, media moments and retail integration.

• Public relations: the campaign generated 155 pieces of coverage and 17.7 million opportunities to see, with 98 per cent of coverage including key messages and an addition reach of 2.1 million across social media channels.
• Channel activity: the message was amplified through TV, radio, online media, YouTube, Meta, TikTok, social vox pops, influencer content and retail integration.

The entertaining idea made a simple education message memorable, helping shoppers understand how to choose avocados more gently and avoid bruising fruit at the shelf. This has improved consumer’s approach to picking an avocado, with 53 per cent of shoppers more aware of how they choose avocados, with 3 in 5 pressing the top from now on.

Growing avocado use in foodservice

The foodservice program worked with chefs, foodservice operators and wholesalers to show Australian avocados as a versatile and commercially valuable menu ingredient.

• Chef-led content: 12 high-profile chefs developed 33 new recipes. Foodservice social activity reached 7.8 million users, while the website attracted 16,000 new users.
• Building the industry audience: the foodservice database grew to 500 subscribers, with monthly emails achieving a 5.4 per cent average click rate. Six wholesalers joined the new WhatsApp channel.
• QSR partnerships: Happyfield increased avocado purchases by 67 per cent during its campaign, while Frank’s Deli recorded a 150 per cent uplift in avocado purchase volume. Cali Press launched Guac & Chips across all 19 stores in June 2026.
• Education and masterclasses: chef, trade show and QSR sessions built practical skills in ripeness, storage, preparation and yield. At the Brisbane chef masterclass, all surveyed attendees said they were likely to use avocados in new applications. At the Melbourne masterclass, 97 per cent said the same.