An ad campaign promoting Australian avocados in the Asia-Pacific region has smashed digital campaign projections, directly engaging close to two million people in Singapore and Malaysia alone.
The three-month, $300,000 campaign was funded by Australian growers through Hort Innovation's international trade programs and ran on social media and television across the region. The campaign engaged international audiences using iconic Australian imagery including koalas, the outback, and beaches.
Hort Innovation Head of Trade Brei Montgomery said the campaign's digital content successfully branded Australian avocados as a premium commodity to Asia-Pacific consumers.
"We wanted to engage the international target audience by featuring classic Australian animals and landscapes," she said. "The idea was to create a fun, live-action postcard. The campaign's performance was exceptional, with key performance indicators sitting at 45 per cent above the benchmark."
John Tyas the CEO of Avocados Australia said the campaign is an example of the industry working together to promote Australian avocados to access international markets.
"Australian growers can no longer rely on the domestic market alone and we know there are good opportunities to grow existing and new markets, particularly in Asia," said Mr Tyas."Across the world there is incredible demand for the premium quality of Australian avocados and it's great to see campaigns supporting our world-class produce."
The strategy proved effective and the video format of the social media campaign had the highest engagement results in Singapore and Malaysia. The campaign was exclusively aired on the Lifetime TV Cable channel in the South-East-Asia region, reaching more than 11.5 million consumers.
The initiative is part of Hort Innovation's trade program, a $120 million investment that includes research and development, as well as marketing projects that promote the Australian horticulture industry.
The avocado industry will showcase their produce at the upcoming Asia Fruit Logistica in Bangkok next month as an opportunity to develop new business, make new top-level contacts and gather essential market information on every aspect of the fresh produce trade throughout Asia.
Hort Innovation is supporting trade development in Australia's avocado industry through a range of projects including the Avocado Export Strategy 2022-2026 (AV21000) and the Avocado Market Access and Trade Development Program (AV20004).
Statistical snapshot of Australian avocado exports to Singapore and Malaysia
According to Global Trade Atlas:
- 50 per cent of Australia's avocado exports were to Singapore and Malaysia in 2021/22 (by volume)
- $25M in revenue was generated by exporting Australian avocados to Singapore and Malaysia in 2021/22
- 5,834 tonnes of Australian avocados were exported to Singapore and Malaysia in 2021/22
- Over the past 10 years, both the value and volume of combined avocado exports to Singapore and Malaysia have grown approximately five-fold.
