Tate Connolly, Marketing Manager

Welcome to the Australian Bananas 2019 Summer marketing update. This activity is managed by Hort Innovation on behalf of the industry and is funded by the banana marketing levy. 

Above the Line activity

TV plays a key role in driving mass awareness of campaign communications, ensuring key messages for Australian Bananas are established at scale.

The latest television burst started on January 27 and finished up after 4 weeks on air on March 9. The campaign launched into a strong slate of programming with some of our first spots appearing in the men’s final of the Australian Open, followed by the launch of Married at First Sight and My Kitchen Rules. The activity continued in February with strong programming throughout. Australian Bananas appeared in a number of key prime time programming slots across all markets as well as off peak, subscription TV and digital channel spots to extend out reach further.

The television activity is supported by a burst of cinema activity. The Australian Bananas’ TVC appeared in cinema for 8 weeks from March 7, aligning with several blockbuster releases.

Australian Bananas will be on 286 screens, supported by 280 Digilites screens in foyers providing an additional touchpoint in the cinemagoer journey and adding incremental reach.

Australian Bananas featured on bus sides in all five metro markets from Feb 17 – March 13. This was supported by large format billboards, which provided coverage in key regional areas.

Australian Bananas is also currently live within the retail landscape, driving awareness and consideration. Retail provides time targeted reach, impact and keeps bananas top of mind on the path to purchase. We have 178 panels live from February 3 to the May 11, with 100% of our retail panels directly outside supermarkets.

Another element of the Out of Home (OOH) activity is the gym activity. Australian Bananas will be seen throughout gyms nationally, targeting consumers within their healthy routines. Australian Bananas is targeting consumers during their mid-morning social sport & gym visits. The gym activity is live for 10 weeks, and features on over 2,500 panels and one insert in Fitness First Magazine.

Australian Bananas continue to hit the demographic by targeting their online viewing habits across the major networks catch up television offerings as well as via contextual sites, app and Flybuys shopper data targeting. Australian Bananas have also targeted consumers via mobile advertising, using their historical location data. This data has allowed Australian Bananas to create a segment of consumers who frequent gyms and health food stores to serve them an Australian Bananas ad to keep the healthy snack top of mind. This ensures we are using our budget efficiently to hit the right people at the right time. 

Social Media

We are regularly reaching over a million people a month with Australian Bananas content on Facebook.

Edentify

The results for the lastest Edentify consumer tracking are in, with key highlights below.

• Bananas remain the clear number one energy snack and are gaining in popularity over healthy packaged snacks – 1 person in 3 ranks banana as their #1 energy snack.

• Thanks to consistent and continuous communication messaging over time, bananas are spontaneously associated with “healthy energy snack”.

• Purchase frequency has been building up wave on wave, with now three quarters purchasing at least weekly.

• Number of people using bananas for more than just snacking is improving – with a clear increase of banana consumption at breakfast (60%), “to start the day”. This new trend has been holding well for the last 2 waves, suggesting a positive behaviour shift.

• Spontaneous ad recall is already picking up the recent media activity after a slight drop during the off media period in December 2018. This nicely shows the efficiency of the media activity. Both key target audiences are responding especially well to the latest campaign messages.

• Online and Out Of Home media activities are adding incremental ad recall within the younger age group and families respectively.

WELCOME TATE CONNOLLY

Tate Connolly started as the Hort Innovation Marketing Manager for Australian Bananas in 2018.

Prior to this role, Tate spent ten years in food-service marketing including Nando’s and Wagamama where she specialised in brand management and communications, leading the both brands through global expansions.

Tate is accredited by the Chartered Institute of Marketing.

Tate has a passion for building and developing brands so that they come to life in the minds and heart of consumers. Combining this with a love of the latest tech and innovation, Tate blends her classical marketing training with the ever moving digital media world to strive for forward thinking campaigns that deliver results back to industry.

Tate lives and breathes all things food. Whether it be discovering new ingredients or new cuisines through her travels or developing recipe with some old favourites- she even runs a twice yearly pop up restaurant!

You’ll get to meet Tate in person when she presents at the Australian Banana Industry Congress on the Gold Coast in May.