In 2024/25, Hort Innovation invested levy funds into targeted marketing campaigns designed to increase consumer awareness, boost fresh produce consumption, and strengthen connections between growers and their customers.
Guided by consumer insights and delivered in partnership with industry, these campaigns helped more Australian households discover, purchase, and enjoy locally grown fruit and vegetables.
Key highlights for the pear marketing campaign include:
- To address impulse-driven purchasing behaviour, the domestic campaign focused on intercepting shoppers through in-store sampling. Over 300 sessions were conducted across Woolworths and Coles, with more than 30,000 samples distributed and an impressive 89% conversion rate to purchase.
- To modernise the perception of pears and inspire new usage occasions, Australian Pears partnered with cook and TV personality Khanh Ong, who created two bespoke recipes and appeared at the Melbourne Good Food & Wine Show. The event attracted over 30,000 attendees, with 6,200 pear samples distributed. Khanh’s social content reached over 62,000 people and achieved nearly 5,000 engagements, significantly outperforming Instagram benchmarks.
- Internationally, FY24/25 marked the expansion of Australian Pears into New Zealand and Canada. In New Zealand, a retailer campaign with Woolworths NZ and MG Group included digital out-of-home advertising, point-of-sale materials, e-commerce ads and Everyday Rewards integration. In Canada, collaboration with Star Produce enabled distribution across major supermarket chains including Loblaw, Costco and Federated Co-operatives. Both markets saw strong sales growth, with Canada up 46% and New Zealand up 13% year-on-year (S&P Connect MAT April 2025).
