Exercise, gourmet or beauty? That was the question asked of our Japanese fan base recently to kick-start an innovative promotional event targeting health and beauty conscious Japanese women. In a great result, the campaign achieved broad online reach of almost 770,000.
Creating pre-event buzz
The campaign was initiated on the Australian Macadamias Japanese website, e-newsletter, Twitter account and Facebook page, where fans were invited to vote for the macadamia experience they would most like to try: exercise, gourmet or beauty.
The result of the vote determined the theme of a live macadamia event, with 35 participating fans selected to attend in person.
To drive extra reach beyond Australian Macadamias’ owned channels, the poll and event were also promoted on two partnering websites: Joshi SPA, a popular Japanese female lifestyle site, and Antenna, a lifestyle news curation site.
The pre-event phase of the campaign generated reach of more than 532,000.
And the winner is…
The votes were tallied and revealed GOURMET to be the macadamia experience our fans were most eager to try.
With the result confirming what the theme of the live event would be, our team set to work creating an amazing live macadamia experience, with popular Japanese nutritionist and inner beauty advocate, Aoi Kinoshita, engaged as the event’s special guest to lead a live macadamia cooking demonstration.
With a blog and social media following of more than 27,000 health and beauty conscious Japanese consumers, Aoi was the ideal partner to bring our gourmet macadamia messaging to life.
An intimate and engaging macadamia event
The live event took place on 8 March in Tokyo. It was attended by 35 specially invited fans who took part in a hands-on gourmet macadamia experience where they learned how to make macadamia milk, spread, hummus, oil dressing and macadamia cheese ball salad, led by Aoi Kinoshita.
It was an educational and intimate event for all guests, who shared their experiences with their sizable social media followings, broadening the reach of our messaging even further.
All attendees received a macadamia gift bag, complete with Australian macadamia oil, a macadamia hair care product, and a DIY macadamia milk kit.
A post-event attendee survey revealed overwhelmingly positive feedback about the event, and some interesting usage and recipe insights. The group reported a broad cross-section of ways they intend to use macadamia milk, including in cooking as an alternative to dairy or soy milk, in coffee, in smoothies, with green or black tea and as a cold beverage.
Their favourite recipe of the day was macadamia Japanese hummus because it was easy to make, pairs well with a drink, is delicious alone or with salad and bread, and has a great nutty texture. The group also said this was the recipe they’d be most likely to make at home. “It was easy to make and would be admired if I made it for a party at home,” said one guest.
Leveraging the live event
While the event itself was exclusive in nature, the online content and reach it generated was anything but small. Extensive coverage featured on our Japanese website, on our social media channels plus posts from influencers, other brands and consumers.
The collective reach of all post-event activity exceeded 236,000, bringing overall reach for the entire campaign to almost 770,000.
Thanks to the Australian Macadamias team in Japan for their hard work in developing and executing such an innovative promotion.