The adorable baby koala, affectionately named ‘Macadamia’ after our iconic nut, recently won the hearts of judges at the prestigious PRIA Golden Target Awards, taking out wins for Consumer Campaign of the Year and Small Budget Campaign.
PRIA (Public Relations Institute of Australia), is the national industry body for public relations and communication professionals in Australia, and the Golden Target Awards celebrate the year’s best PR campaigns, individuals and organisations, judged across 29 categories.
In an innovative collaboration with Australia Zoo, we paired macadamias with one of our most loved icons, a koala joey, to create a campaign that instilled a sense of emotion and national pride in the industry and put macadamias on the same pedestal as other national idols.
The world fell in love with Macadamia. His legion of fans across social media affectionately renamed him ‘Little Mac’ and they couldn’t get enough of his abundant cuteness.
The campaign also generated substantial media interest, with journalists hungry for a feel-good story to lighten the terrorism-related headlines that dominated the May/June news cycle.
National and international coverage reached an estimated audience of 180 million. More than 300 stories were generated as news of Macadamia’s arrival spread across Australian media, including Seven News, Nine News, ABC, Sky, SMH, The Age, Courier Mail, and for our younger target audience Pedestrian.TV, Huff Post and Buzzfeed.
Australian Macadamias Market Development Manager, Lynne Ziehlke said, “With the help of one adorable koala joey, we created an innovative and compelling campaign that made a huge impact and attracted attention both domestically and internationally.
The wins are testament to the dedication, skill and talent of our team, the wider industry, and particularly the PR specialists at The Red Agency who spearheaded this activity. It’s a real privilege!”
To see little Macadamia in action, head to the Australian Macadamias YouTube channel.