Hort Innovation is responsible for investing the avocado marketing levy into a range of activities to drive awareness and consumption, under the Hort Innovation Avocado Fund.

Read on for a snapshot of how the avocado marketing program will adapt to the new consumer and retail landscape created by COVID-19.

In response to the unfolding COVID-19 situation, two priorities were identified for Australian Avocadoes and the aim to continue driving in-home consumption:

1. Ensuring consumers understand how and why avocados can positively benefit them and their health during this time
2. Educating consumers how to use avocados at home, on Shepard avocados and the differences from Hass (and the change in season when it comes) and the versatility of the product across a range of meals/occasions (including replicating eating out at home)

Already planned activities such as advertisements across television, radio and ‘out of home’ placements on shopper center digital screens will continue until June 2020 and the associated consumer sentiment will be closely monitored.

Media

A new campaign #smashanavoathome has been developed in response to the closing of restaurants and cafes to encourage consumers to continue enjoying their smashed avocado despite the changing circumstances. In terms of media outreach, key highlights of the campaign promotion have included:

• A cooking segment with Alice Zaslavsky on ABC News Breakfast and the clip can be viewed here. This clip resulted in 249,000 opportunities to see.
• The Sydney Morning Herald ran a story on the campaign which can be read online here, where they highlighted the importance of continuing to eat avocados to support Australian avocado growers.

Coverage has been strong and has appeared in various media outlets such as; Concrete Playground, BuzzFeed Australia, Pedestrian, Cairns Post (print), The Brag, delicious, Fresh Plaza, Where To Sydney, North Queensland Register & Queensland Country Life (print), Time Out and Broadsheet.

This activity has already resulted in a total of 12.2 million opportunities to see.

Partnerships

Australian Avocados has secured a partnership with the famous Sonoma Bakery in Sydney to deliver fresh sourdough bread and avocados straight to consumer’s homes so that they can #smashanavoathome. This initiative will be pitched to local media and Sonoma will promote further via their own social media channels as well with over 40,000 followers.

The Australian Avocados Brand Ambassador Luke Hines promoted the Sonoma #smashanavoathome packs via his Instagram story and is currently working on a variety of content that will be used to suit the current environment such as at-home cooking demos.

Australian Avocados sponsorship with Taste.com.au has gone live including:

• The ‘Keep Calm Kitchen’ section that was developed in response to COVID-19 will be flanked by Australian Avocados content for a month
• Display advertising is live across the site and will be specifically targeting users who have previously had a high spend on dining out, but will now be looking for easy recipes for home.
• Three core recipes along with video content and display ads have been promoted across the platform; Panko-crusted avocado with Japanese noodle salad, Chicken nachos salad with avocado dressing and Healthier ‘Snickers’ dessert cups.
• Recipe galleries have gone live providing inspiration for consumers on how to include avocados beyond what they may already do.

Influencer activity

#Smashanavoathome packs were sent out to key influencers and friends of Australian Avocados including, Healthy Chef & Cookbook Author, Luke Hines; Chef and author Alice Zaslavsky; Chef Tom Walton; Chef Hayden Quinn and partner Jax Raynor; Dietitian and Nutritionist, Lyndi Cohen (The Nude Nutritionist); Fitness influencer, Sam Wood. 

Nine posts have been posted by these influencers over the past couple of weeks and this activity taps into the highly engaged audiences of lifestyle influencers across social media in an authentic way and increases the reach of the campaign effectively.

A second micro influencer campaign is underway, further encouraging people to #smashanavoathome by sharing their favourite guacamole recipes. This is planned to go live in mid-May to coincide with the ‘Hass is back’ campaign.

Social media 

The ‘always on’ approach to social media ensures that Australian Avocados remain top of mind for consumers. Given the current climate, the frequency of messaging will be increased to highlight the health benefits of avocado and usage ideas.

Current social media sentiment is overwhelmingly positive with good response to recipes and activities such as downloadable colouring in graphics. A post about storing avocados had many fans sharing their own tips and tricks for saving their avos in the comments.

You can have a look at the Instagram feed here.

Variety campaign

The ‘Hass is back’ campaign will begin when Hass avocados are back in market from early May. This will involve a media release to support the return of Hass along with media outreach to secure further opportunities to connect with consumers.