Influencer marketing has emerged as a powerful tool in the modern marketing arsenal, with the potential to deliver impressive results. Leveraging the credibility of popular personalities to connect brands with their target audiences in an authentic and impactful way, it has proven to be an effective component of the Australian Macadamias marketing strategy, helping to expand our global footprint.
We have recently partnered with a new generation of influencers in Japan, South Korea, China and Australia, leveraging the trust and connection these food and lifestyle experts have built with their large and engaged audiences. The macadamia content these partnerships generate is helping to amplify the taste, versatility and origin story of Australian grown macadamias to consumers in these markets in a way that’s boosting the visibility, familiarity and relevance of our product.
Japanese and South Korean influencers visit macadamia country
The lush landscape of the New South Wales Northern Rivers district is one of Australia’s major macadamia growing regions. Representing 27% of Australia’s macadamia production, it is affectionately known as ‘macadamia country’. We recently invited food, travel and lifestyle influencers from Japan and South Korea on a four-day educational tour of the region, immersing them in the multi-layered Australian macadamia story.
Japan and South Korea are important markets, with Australian origin constituting more than 60%1 of macadamia imports into Japan and 85%2 into South Korea. Investing in expanding awareness and purchase among Japanese and South Korean consumers is therefore an important priority to preserve the gains already made and help grow future demand.
Bringing these highly skilled content creators onto Australian soil has seen them generate and share macadamia content with their collective audience of more than 1.5 million, taking their followers along for the ride as they experienced Australian macadamia orchards, recipes, menus and products and met growers, product innovators and chefs.
Highlights of their time in macadamia country included:
Macadamia orchard experience: An afternoon at grower Ross Arnett’s macadamia farm, where he shared his knowledge of macadamia growing and regenerative farming, and demonstrated how macadamias are harvested and sorted.
Macadamia cooking masterclass: Our guests were taught how to make macadamia lip balm, macadamia milk and roasted macadamia butter.
Macadamia processing: A visit to Marquis Macadamias’ processing facility enabled them to see all stages of macadamia processing first-hand, including drying, cracking, sorting and packing.
Macadamia cuisine: Guests were treated to examples of how macadamias can be incorporated into everyday dishes and fine dining, with a macadamia lunch enjoyed at Ross Arnett’s farm, and a macadamia fine-dining experience created and served by MasterChef Australia alumni and Indigenous chef Mindy Woods
Product tasting: A tour of the Byron Farmers’ Markets enabled our influencers to taste products featuring Australian grown macadamias as an ingredient, including smoked fish and macadamia paste, macadamia butter and dukkah and a variety of flavoured macadamias, while a tasting session at Cape Byron Distillery saw them experience the Brookie’s gin range, Mac. Macadamia Liqueur and Mac. Liqueur Cask Whisky
Hot air ballooning over macadamia country: A balloon experience had guests gazing down at the expanse of macadamia orchards 2,000 feet below. Providing a different perspective, this is a great way to appreciate the scale of Australia’s macadamia production.
Rainforest experience: Pam and Martin Brook are macadamia growers and co-founders of premium breakfast and snack brand Brookfarm and Cape Byron Distillery. Champions of regenerative agriculture, they led the group through the rainforest they have restored on their property, explaining how it encourages biodiversity and provides habitat for native wildlife.
Personal experience proves potent
In-person familiarisation with a product or brand is considered the gold standard in influencer marketing due to its immersive nature. The resulting content is often more insightful and impactful, driving higher engagement and effectively conveying the brand’s value to a broader audience.
South Korean food influencer Nanni Kim boasts a following of more than half a million people across Instagram and YouTube. “This was the first time I had seen how macadamias are produced and being here I can see it’s so clean, natural and eco-friendly. As a consumer, I can buy Australian macadamias and know they’re a nutritious and trust-worthy food that’s grown in a clean environment,” she said.
For Japanese food influencer Ryogo Morishita, it’s the versatility of macadamias that have left a lasting impression on him. “I was surprised how well they work in any type of dish, and with other ingredients . I want to take what I’ve learned and use Japanese ingredients with Australian macadamias to create some special Japanese and Australian macadamia fusion recipes for my followers,” he said.
South Korean food stylist and recipe developer Millie Sy loved learning about macadamia harvesting and their recipe potential. “It’s so interesting that macadamias aren’t harvested from the tree. The farmer waits until the nuts fall to the ground and harvests from there. People are used to using peanuts and almonds in South Korea. But I want to let them know about macadamias because they have such a good flavour, they’re really rich and you can use a small amount and make a huge impact. I’m going to develop macadamia recipes and tell my audience to use them in their home cooking.”
Seunga Lee, a South Korean travel influencer wants to tackle a misconception about macadamias with her audience. “In Korea a lot of people think the macadamia is from Hawaii. But the truth is Australia is the natural home of macadamias, so I want to educate my audience about their true origin,” she said.
Japanese lifestyle influencers Rina Ishii and Natsuki Umeda were impressed by the sustainability practices they observed. “Australian macadamias taste wonderful, and I admire the commitment of the farmers, particularly the measures they take to protect nature,” said Rina. Natsuki agreed, saying she has a long-held interest in sustainability and is looking forward to sharing what she has learned about how Australian growers approach macadamia production. “I want to tell my followers about how committed Australia’s macadamia farmers are to sustainability, including things like composting and how they recycle the husk and shell.”
Influencer marketing in China helps rise above the noise
The Australian Macadamias marketing program leverages festivals and celebrations in all key markets, with Chinese New Year being one of the most notable.
This year we partnered with seven influencers to optimise our messaging at a time when heavy online brand activity makes it challenging to cut through. With expertise across a host of topics including food, lifestyle, parenting and fitness, the influencers posted their Chinese New Year macadamia content on RED, one of China’s newer and fastest-growing social media platforms.
Hampers of macadamia products and macadamias in-shell were gifted to the influencers. They used these to create original content promoting macadamia consumption during the holiday period. With the influencers specialising in different niches, their content showcased a variety of macadamia uses and benefits, from their gifting and entertaining potential to their healthy fats and suitability to post-exercise snacking.
Macadamia chia pudding goes viral in Australia
Back home, we have established relationships with many food, health and lifestyle influencers to help amplify key macadamia messaging in the domestic market.
A recent partnership with Instagrammer @littlekalegirl saw her mesmerising recipe video for macadamia chia pudding go viral notching up more than 5.3 million views, with the vivid colours and layers of flavour proving to be a hit with her audience and ours.
Follow our channels
We thank our teams in Japan, South Korea, China and Australia for helping us to establish and nurturing these vital influencer partnerships.
To see more of our engaging consumer content, be sure to follow us on your favourite social media platforms: Facebook, Instagram, YouTube or X.
