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

During 2025/26, the sweetpotato marketing strategy focused on restoring relevance and encouraging more frequent purchase. The plan aimed to show how sweetpotatoes can make familiar meals tastier, more nutritious and more interesting, while making them easier to notice and choose in store. Activity centred on broad food inspiration, refreshed recipe content and retailer-led activation to support ongoing category growth.

Insights that drove our thinking  

Sweetpotatoes are valued for their taste, health benefits and versatility, but they are no longer top of mind for many shoppers. Household penetration declined from 71 per cent to 59 per cent over the five years to December 2025, and only eight per cent of consumers named sweetpotatoes as a vegetable they intended to buy in the next seven days.

Purchase is highly planned and centred on dinner, while 31 per cent of recent buyers said sweetpotatoes were not usually on their shopping list. Families with babies and teenagers, and established-couple households, drove recent volume growth.  

The opportunity was to rebuild awareness, improve visibility and choice in store, and provide simple, contemporary meal ideas that reinforce value for budget-conscious households and young families.

What did the campaign achieve?  

Everyday Gourmet partnership on Network 10 
A partnership was endorsed to feature sweetpotatoes in at least six recipes, including three tailored feature recipes supported by key nutrition messages. Content was planned across broadcast television, the Everyday Gourmet website, YouTube and Facebook, with video and high-resolution imagery available for future sweetpotato marketing use.

Contemporary recipe development 
Ten fully tested recipes with professional imagery were commissioned to refresh the category’s ageing recipe library. The recipes focus on budget-friendly family meals, led by dinner, with additional lunch, dessert, side and salad occasions and inspiration from a range of cuisines.

Retail-led marketing campaign 
A retail-led campaign is planned to rebuild buyer participation and category growth, with retailer and supply-chain engagement playing a key role. Retailer support, along with technical and commercial viability, will shape the campaign before it is launched.