The challenge for Australian Bananas in 2022 was to develop an enduring, engaging and disruptive brand campaign to promote the natural energy provided by bananas while also communicating how versatile bananas are at fueling our passions.

Australian Bananas relaunched the iconic  ‘Make Your Body Sing’ soundtrack with a distinctive tongue-in-cheek brand platform promoting a faux range of bananas, each specifically suited to a popular Aussie pastime. First launched in 1994, many consumers instantly recall the song, reminding them that bananas are a great natural energy source to help you do all the things you love, no matter who you are and what you’re doing.

Competitors in the energy space have been innovating for years, while bananas have not changed for millennia. Australian Bananas takes a unique approach through this playful campaign encouraging Australians to reappraise the humble banana and prompting consumers to consider bananas for more occasions. The positioning of Australian Bananas as the go-to snack for honest-to-goodness natural energy allows the fruit to be considered a convenient, healthy solution for breakfast and throughout the day.

The campaign is backed by research insights and a focused media plan to optimise spend. It promotes the banana category at a time when growers are experiencing unprecedented challenges, including escalating farm input costs, worker shortages, and weather events.

Activities

With 91 per cent of Australian households (8.95 million households) already purchasing bananas, the media approach needed to cast the net wide. Through this approach, the campaign includes light buyers who represent a growth opportunity for bananas; by increasing their consumption frequency.

Hort Innovation promoted the campaign from January to June through an integrated marketing program including television, broadcast video on demand, out-of-home display panels outside supermarkets, radio, public relations and social media. The campaign leveraged a complementary selection of media channels to ensure key messages were delivered to consumers across the path to purchase to raise awareness, drive consideration and contribute to conversion.

Activities focused on building the association of Australian Bananas with energy, and tapping into opportunities to communicate the banana message during key cultural events. The first was back-to-school in January to ensure bananas are the go-to fruit in the lunchbox, following an influx of seasonal fruit choices throughout Summer. The second was National Banana Day, May 1st, to build consumer interest in the lead-up to winter.

Results

The ‘Make Your Body Sing’ campaign performed well in both pre-launch and post-launch effectiveness measures as detailed below.

PRE-LAUNCH

Pre-launch, Australian Bananas’ campaign was assessed on its advertising effectiveness, using quantitative research. The results conducted with research company Cubery showed that the bananas advertising exceeded all other advertisements tested by Cubery in Australia. Cubery tests approximately 500 advertisements annually, measuring their effectiveness, with the Australian Bananas advertisement falling into the top five per cent of advertisements Cubery has tested globally.

The Australian Bananas television advertising exceeded norms across all key measures to:

• Captivate: 71 versus 59 norm to stand out and grab attention
• Connect: 81 versus 59 norm to instantly recall the product/brand
• Compel: 77 versus 58 norm to motivate behavioural change through the positive influence of thoughts, feelings and behaviours.

Not only was the advertisement enjoyed by consumers, the campaign also conveyed the key messages that were intended to resonate with consumers. With each message tested measuring significantly higher than the norm, including ‘a snack high in energy’ 94 versus norm of 78.

In addition, qualitative research found the Australian Bananas message warm, inclusive, and nostalgic portrayal of  the way Bananas fuel the activities consumers love, bringing bananas front of mind for more occasions, more often. 

Examples of consumer responses shared include “Bananas are for everything, they’re a winner. It’s relatable, nostalgic and appeals to more generations and more activities” and “It left a  positive impression about how good bananas are as fuel for nearly anything.”

POST-LAUNCH

Post-launch, the key success measures were reach, frequency and opportunities to see the Banana advertising and content. The Banana media campaign has reached 24.4 million Australians, equivalent to reaching 98 per cent of the target market; grocery buyers aged 25-54.

All KPI’s for reach, frequency and opportunities to see the banana key messages have been met or exceeded, driven by the following activities:

• Television/ Broadcast video on demand (catch up tv): View the advertisement here
• Radio: Listen to the radio advertisement here
• Out of home: Panels outside of supermarkets

Further to media, public relations media outreach and social media have created 205.3 million opportunities to see the banana key messages (the number of exposures or opportunities the audience has to view the content), driven by the following activities:

• Public Relations, Back to School: Achieved 73 pieces of coverage, generating over 51.9 million opportunities to see the banana key messages.
• Public Relations, National Banana Day: Achieved 105 pieces of coverage, generating over 131 million opportunities to see the banana key messages.
• Social media: Achieved 22.4 million opportunities to see the banana key messages, at an average engagement rate on Facebook and Instagram of 7.47 per cent, versus food and beverage global average of less than 1 per cent.

To further support understanding of consumer impact, research conducted during the campaign period provided key campaign diagnostics that measure the Australian Banana campaign’s impact on consumer perception.

Results were overwhelmingly positive with each measure exceeding norm; ‘easy to understand’ 77 per cent versus 62 per cent norm, ‘believable’ 68 per cent versus 48 per cent norm, ‘relevant to people like me’ 56 per cent versus 42 per cent norm and ‘enjoyable campaign’ 61 per cent versus 47 per cent norm.