The Australian Macadamias consumer campaign in China has continued to unfold at full pace over the past month, with the launch of a new video and a media campaign that have delivered outstanding results.
The video campaign was created to inspire interest and drive demand among our female target audience, while the media campaign ran in parallel, generating positive news coverage in leading business and food publications.
New ‘natural beauty’ video
The centrepiece of the latest activity burst was the launch of a new video featuring a prominent Chinese female key opinion leader (KOL) to communicate the core message of Australian Macadamias as a source of natural goodness for beauty on the inside that shows on the outside.
Following the success of the previous KOL video featuring beauty influencer Vivian Xu, this time we collaborated with popular Chinese parenting influencer Tang Ning, and her adorable five-year old daughter, Guoguo.
Tang Ning and Guoguo were invited to Australia as our guests, to experience macadamias in their natural home. They spent five days in the Northern Rivers macadamia growing region, taking in the many layers of our brand story, and enjoying time on a macadamia farm. It was here they filmed the new video showcasing the natural beauty benefits of macadamias, overlaid with the growing and harvesting story.
Multiple formats and platforms boost campaign effectiveness
The campaign content was leveraged through China’s largest parenting website, BabyTree, as well as social media, with the activity generating strong engagement on both Tang Ning’s Weibo channel, and our own Weibo and WeChat channels. It also featured on the BabyTree mobile app.
A full suite of campaign activity ensured momentum was created and maintained before and after the video launch. This included:
Teaser video: the release of a 15-second teaser prior to the full-length video primed our audience for the main launch
Travel experience articles: three articles written by Tang Ning and published on Babytree detailed various aspects of her trip to macadamia country, including the natural beauty of the Northern Rivers, her on-farm experiences, her introduction to macadamia beauty products, the Australian industry’s unrivalled quality standards, macadamia recipes, and Australian wildlife experiences.
Q&A video: an additional video was released featuring Tang Ning answering questions about her impressions of the macadamia orchard and the way in which macadamias are grown in Australia. Her responses underscore Australia’s clean and green growing credentials, and why Chinese consumers, who are often concerned about food safety, can trust our product. “As a mum, I pay much attention to food safety…when I got to the (macadamia) farm, all the things are green, all the things are clean, especially the air,” she says. Watch the English version of the Q&A here.
Consumer competition: consumers were invited to share Tang Ning’s travel experience posts for the chance to win a macadamia prize pack. Consumers used words such as safe, reliable, healthy, nutritious, delicious and beautiful when reposting this content, while winner feedback included comments such as smells good, crispy, natural, high-quality, beautiful package
BabyTree banner ads: these achieved more than 3 million impressions and almost 20,000 clicks
Making our mark with extraordinary results
The campaign results have been exceptional, with all KPIs met, and many exceeded by up to 360%.
The trailer and full-length videos collectively achieved almost half a million impressions, 390,000 unique views and were shared almost 14,000 times on Weibo.
Performance highlights include:
Full-length video: 410,000 impressions (164% of KPI)
Teaser video: 80,000 impressions (160% of KPI)
Tang Ning’s Weibo: 18,000 engagements
Australian Macadamias Weibo: 24,800 engagements
Travel experience article reach: 35,940 (360% of KPI)
BabyTree launch reach: 34,863 (348% of KPI)
Consumer competition: 5,700 entries and 7,300 engagements
Forging the right KOL partnership
Partnerships with opinion leaders can deliver significant benefits for brands, however it’s important to ensure the fit is right, and this was a crucial element of the campaign’s success. Tang Ning is an active influencer in the parenting and education field in China and she has also starred on a highly popular career-focused Chinese reality TV show.
Her sizeable social media following was leveraged throughout the campaign, as she enthusiastically shared her macadamia experiences with her 220,0000 Weibo fans during her time in Australia, before sharing the teaser and full-length videos.
Tang Ning learned about the growing cycle and beauty secrets of macadamias, and as a health-conscious mum who believes that “beauty is from the inside out”, was amazed and reassured by the pristine environment in which Australian macadamias grow, and the standards our growers work to.
An ideal fit for our brand, Tang Ning brought credibility to the campaign, and helped to amplify core messaging to one of our most important target markets in China: health and beauty-conscious mothers.
Media campaign generates impressive coverage
To spread the spotlight as wide as possible, a media campaign launched to coincide with the timing of the consumer video release.
The campaign consisted of a series of interviews and articles covering a host of key messages designed to promote confidence in our product and industry. This highly successful activity generated coverage across more than 100 online media outlets, reaching millions of people, including 500,000 on WeChat alone.
It uncovered significant Chinese media interest in Australia’s macadamia industry, particularly in relation to market performance and potential, future market planning, channel strategy and e-commerce penetration.
The quality of the content attracted the attention of some highly influential platforms, including Financial Gossip Girl, which generated more than 500,000 impressions when it shared one of our articles.
CEO interviews capture business media attention
Australian Macadamias Chief Executive Officer Jolyon Burnett was interviewed by two key Chinese publications, Produce Report and Yicai, generating excellent coverage on both platforms, and triggering a wave of additional exposure across 46 leading food and business publications.
Produce Report, a leading Chinese fruit and vegetable publication, published its interview with the headline China to Remain Key Market for Australian Macadamia Nuts in 2017, and also shared the piece on its WeChat account. The interview was picked up by another 27 online media outlets, resulting in coverage on a host of top news and financial sites including ifeng.com, 21cn.com, and 163.com.
China’s most influential economic and financial platform Yicai, focused on the substantial growth in demand for our product in China, under the headline The Strong Nut: Australian Macadamias Increase 11 Times over 5 Years in China. Yicai promoted the article across its website, app and WeChat account, and the content was shared by several mainstream financial Weibo accounts. All up this piece gained exposure across 19 Chinese business publications and was recommended as a hot Weibo post.
Articles complement CEO messaging and video launch
A series of four articles supported the traction gained by the CEO interviews and video launch, with each article exploring a different facet of our progress in China to date.
1. Australian grown macadamias: Building a Significant Brand
2. 11-Fold Increase in 5 Years: Australian Macadamias Perform Solidly in Chinese Market
3. Exploring the beauty secrets of Australian Macadamias: three years of promotion in China
4. Australian Macadamias 2017 Marketing Campaign Heats Up
These articles resulted in exposure in over 70 online publications, including some of China’s leading food and business platforms, including sohu.com, and cnfood.net.
Strong results buoyed by positive feedback
The metrics born from these campaigns are impressive, and just as encouraging is the feedback garnered from consumers in response to both the video and the articles that appeared across so many of China’s popular media platforms.
Interest in Australian grown macadamias is strong among Chinese consumers, and our brand image is positive, with consumers associating our product with good taste and good nutrition. As we continue to spread our message, the base of consumers in China who recognise the nutritional and beauty benefits of Australian macadamias will expand further, with some believing our product is on track to become the ‘next big thing’ in on-trend healthy food.
To watch the new video head here and if you have any questions regarding this latest Australian Macadamias campaign in China feel free to contact Lynne Ziehlke.
