Grassroots Product Sampling and Events
By Leah Bramich. AMGA
Cambride Markets – Sydney
To continue to drive top of mind awareness, a levy-funded, AMGA-run Grassroots Product Demonstrations and Events Program is underway to support local growers by driving demand within communities in which they live and work.
The program has developed ‘hyper local’ product sampling events to drive the uptake of mushrooms in both regional and metro markets, providing delicious product samples and promoting “Add the Mighty Mushie” to position mushrooms as an essential ingredient for enhanced taste and health.
The AMGA have selected Melbourne, Adelaide, Sydney, Perth and the Gold Coast for activations, along with 15 regional areas which align with grower locations. A total of 23 product sampling events are being activated around the nation.
To efficiently roll out the product demonstration and sampling events remotely, local radio stations were engaged to design their version of a ‘Hyper local event’ with preferences given to local foodie festivals, farmers markets, restaurants, or independent green grocers, with mushroom samples cooked by professional chefs. In Ballarat, a former MasterChef contestant will cook ‘Mushroom toasties', in Adelaide, well know chef, restaurateur and former MasterChef Callum Hann will cook live on stage at the Adelaide Markets, and in Perth, seaside café Odyssea will include a mushroom on toast item to their menu for the week, inviting listeners to try it.
Each regional event is accompanied with a live broadcast or street team event, and a hefty radio campaign to support it, with reach amplified via the station’s social media channels. Taking simple product sampling to the next level, all events include a product sampling element and mushroom giveaways, and the opportunity for mushroom growers to be personally involved in the grassroots promotion.
Metro events have been selected in premium markets with high traffic. The 3-day Melbourne event at Queen Victoria Market reported 1760 mushrooms on toast samples provided, with 2250 interactions. A huge impact!
Local Grower Involvement
Local growers will be invited to take part in their regions event, as many have a long history of being active in their local community, active with local media and have long-standing relationships with local businesses.
In regions where there are multiple growers, AMGA will need to manage relationships carefully to ensure each grower is represented equally, and no preferences are shown.
Managed by the AMGA, Local Growers will be invited to:
Be interviewed on-air about the mushroom growing process
Provide free mushrooms for product sampling and giveaways
Provide a display, showing the mushrooms growing process
Facilitate open days/ Farm tours
While local growers are invited to take part, all messaging will remain with the “Australian Mushrooms” brand and all promotional efforts will link back to the Australian Mushrooms channels.
While all activations were booked to deliver in FY22 (and some have indeed have been deployed), Hort Innovation and the AMGA made the decision to put the program on hold due to the supply shortage. The program is now booked for late July and August.
Regional Radio Events
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Star 106.3 – 4hr street team event 0730-1130 from Willows Sunday Markets. Chef cooking elevated mushrooms on toast. Inc. Advertising schedule
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Hit 100.7 – Toowoomba Farmers market, 3hr outside broadcast. Chef cooking mushrooms on toast. Inc. Advertising schedule
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Mix FM 97.3 – Erbachers independent greengrocer (46yrs), 3hr outside broadcast 1500-1800. Chef cooking mushrooms on toast. Inc. Advertising schedule
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Hot Tomato – HOTA Farmers Markets, 3hr outside broadcast 0800-1100. Chef cooking mushrooms on toast. Inc. Advertising schedule
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3BA – Tim Bones (Masterchef) at Ballarat Markets cooking mushroom toasties, 2hr outside broadcast 1000-1200. Inc. Advertising schedule
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Hit 91.9 – Heathcote on Show, 3hr outside broadcast 0900-1200. Chef cooking Mushroom Bruschetta. Inc. Advertising schedule
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Edge FM – 4hr live broadcast 0900-1300 from Fruits n Fare independent grocer. Chef cooked mushrooms on toast Inc. Advertising schedule
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Hit 104.9 – Albury Wodonga Farmers Markets. 4hr street team with live crosses 0800-1200 – Chef from Smart Hospitality Inc. Advertising schedule
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Hit 101.3 – Terrigal Beach Markets. 2hr pop up event with live crosses. Chef to cook mushrooms on toast. Inc. Advertising schedule
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Hit 106.9 – Newcastle Food and Flower Markets, Sandgate. 2hr outside broadcast 1000-1200 and chef. Inc. Advertising schedule
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Mix FM – 2hr roadside activation 1000-1200. Location TBC Inc. Advertising schedule
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Power 94.9 – Easts and Eats Event. 2hr pop up event, late afternoon. Chef cooking mushrooms on toast. Inc. Advertising schedule
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Nova – Callum Hann (Masterchef) 2hr cooking demonstration. Location TBC, likely the new food hall. Inc. Advertising schedule
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Nova – Odyssea restaurant featuring mushroom bruschetta on menu for a week. 2hr live cross event with chefs providing mushroom samples. Inc. Advertising schedule
METRO PRODUCT SAMPLING EVENTS
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Sampling events held at the Adelaide Central Markets for 3 consecutive Thursdays:
• 26 May 2022
• 2 June 2022
• 11 June 2022
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Sampling events held at the Queen Victoria Markets for 3 consecutive days. Each event is 9hrs.
• Thurs 30 June 2022
• Fri 1 July 2022
• Sat 2 July 2022
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Two Sampling events held Cambridge Markets events. Each event is 6hrs
• 12 June 2022
• 28 August 2022 “Christmas in July” (Postponed event)
Mushrooms on Toast set to Infiltrate Café Culture
By Leah Bramich. AMGA
An excellent opportunity exists for mushrooms to leverage current vegan, vegetarian, flexitarian, meat-reducing, plant-forward, superfood and sustainability diet trends, and to become the next hero ingredient on breakfast, brunch, and lunch café menus.
It’s safe to say that you can walk into almost any café in Australia and order smashed avocado on toast.
Smashed avo’s rise to fame is tied to the wellness movement. This global sensation began more than two decades ago and was driven by consumer demand for less processed, and more fresh, healthy, and plant-forward meals; reasons which are still relevant today.
The AMGA are leading a new Foodservice Program to “infiltrate café culture” to influence cafés to replace smashed avo on their menu - with Mushrooms on Toast.
Mushrooms on Toast is similar to the smashed avo in its simplicity, while allowing cafes to get creative. It’s a quick and easy meat-free menu option for diners, with great ‘value add’ options for cafés to increase their profit margins.
Yet while smashed avo is served raw, mushrooms require cooking; typically in one of two ways - either sautéed or roasted.
A successful and desirable mushroom dish depends on how well the mushrooms are cared for during the cooking processes. Mushrooms have a high-water content, which can easily become ‘mooshie’ - therefore it’s imperative that café kitchen staff learn how to cook the mighty mushroom properly.
A key element in the Australian Mushrooms Café Culture Foodservice program is the educational tool kit. We are on a mission to ‘ban the mooshie mushie’ by teaching café kitchen staff mushroom 101 – how to choose, prep, store and cook a great mushroom dish, while enticing café owners and staff to add mushrooms to menus with a huge prize incentive.
Through this Foodservice Program, the AMGA will influence café culture by:
Scope the Foodservice industry –Food Industry Foresight have been engaged to offer detailed insight into the café sector through hard data and qualitative and quantitative industry surveys. These reports are invaluable to understanding the sector, how to educate, and how to influence menus.
Engage industry to co-design and collaborate – A Project Reference Group of café owners and food industry experts was engaged to ensure the program and educational materials have relevance.
Cooking Education – Educational videos, a ‘My Mushroom Toast’ educational booklet and café recipes with detailed profit projections were produced. These resources are housed on the new food service section of the Australian Mushrooms website and will be used in remarketing to teach and inspire cafés.
Health Education – Educating café staff of the unique health benefits of mushrooms, and to instil mushrooms as the hero ingredient for meat-free/vegan/vegetarian/flexitarian/plant-forward menu options.
Inspire menu change – Directly engage cafés through a social media competition, open to both consumers and café owners. The café major prize incentive is $10,000 for Australia’s best Mushrooms on Toast. The competition is designed to build hype as well as creating a community for mushroom menu inspiration.
Make mushrooms famous – Through a media launch and hefty PR campaign, to garner both paid and earned media to increase reach.
Monitor and evaluate – Survey the industry pre and post program, to show the effectiveness of the campaign.
The program has been researched, designed and is ready to go, however, Hort Innovation and the AMGA made the decision to put the program on hold until the current shortage is resolved. The program aims to deploy in late August through to October 2022.
New look mushroom marketing strategy built on collaboration
The team at HIA have developed a new approach to the Marketing Planning Process, through close collaboration with industry.
The fresh approach, presented in September by HIA General Manager Jane Smith, laid out a commitment to foster better working relationships with growers and their peak industry bodies.
Included in the plan are workshops with industry and the AMGA, farm visits, as well as ongoing consultation with the SIAP
The collaborative workshops will provide an opportunity to share ideas and discuss recent developments. Results from these events will shape activities for the 2023 financial year.
Concurrently, and responding to feedback from growers, the Hort Innovation Australia (HIA) Mushroom marketing team, Head of Consumer Marketing Gillian Reilly and Marketing Manager, Emma Day have been busy refocusing their marketing strategy.
Through leveraging current diet trends, there are ample opportunities for mushrooms in the vegan, vegetarian, flexitarian, meat-reducing, plant-forward, superfood and sustainability spaces.
Riding on new consumer data that Australian eating habits post-COVID are leaning towards more home cooking, less meat and with a greater focus on nutrition, the new brand strategy is focused on pitching mushrooms as an everyday, for everyone, essential ingredient
Guiding the new strategy is a four-pillar approach designed to unlock the core challenge: How do we inspire consumers to consider and use mushrooms more often?
Top of mind awareness is the first pillar and seeks to increase prominence of mushrooms through media and communication activities. In practice, this means positioning Australian mushrooms as an essential ingredient in everyday meals to improve taste and nutrition. A highly successful campaign with celebrity Chef Adam Liaw at the Mushroom Meatery is a great example of this initiative in action.
Promoting the nutrition and unique health benefits of mushrooms by educating and inspiring to incorporate mushrooms in home cooking consumers forms pillar two. The consumer claims research run by Fiftyfive5 is a great example of this initiative in action. Consumers were asked to rank a variety of mushroom health claims against criteria of appeal, credibility & uniqueness. The results have been summarised in a handy grower fact sheet, which can be accessed www.australianmushrooms.com.au in the new Industry Portal section.
Increasing the visibility of mushrooms in retail settings to capitalise on impulse buying is the basis of pillar 3. Activities here include inspiring shoppers to purchase mushrooms via in-store inspiration mechanics i.e. product demonstrations and sampling, retail out of home advertising panels close to or inside of stores, and retailer in-store and online advertising.
Weaving mushrooms into café culture, and Australia’s beloved brunch, is an exciting project and the fourth pillar of the brand strategy. Mushrooms are in a position to follow in the wake of smashed avocado on toast and become a must-have menu item. The AMGA-run project has developed and is executing this “ Foodservice Program” work with cafes.
Look out for further updates on the new brand strategy in the quarterly Mushroom Link magazine.
Mushroom Meatery pop up reaches 1.9 million viewers on Weekend Sunrise
In a collaboration with Australian Mushrooms, celebrity chef Adam Liaw and Kingsmore Meats, the mushroom meatery popup – part butchery, part mushroom-focused deli – celebrated all things mushrooms for two weeks in May.
Showcasing mushrooms in a different context, the mushroom meatery was all about celebrating the versatility of mushrooms. The popup within the butchery highlighted the role of mushrooms in a healthy flexitarian diet.
During six different spots on Channel 7’s Weekend Sunrise weather segment, Adam Liaw spoke about the various types of mushrooms commonly available, offered up preparation tips for home cooks, talked about their nutritional benefits, and prepared a few mushroom meals.
Story of the mushroom x Kingsmore Meats crossover spread across traditional and social media platforms, including The Guardian, Daily Mail Australia, Urban:List, and Broadsheet.
Since the pandemic, more Australians are cooking at home and making informed decisions about what to cook. New research from Australian Mushrooms revealed that more than half of Australians have improved their eating habits over the last 12 months – with 63 per cent admitting to preparing more meals at home, eating less processed foods (49 per cent) and increasing their intake of fresh and healthy foods (49 per cent).
Coverage and Highlights of the mushroom meatery campaign
Consumer trends – a snapshot
A presentation by Atomic 212 to Hort Innovation earlier this year contained plenty of hopeful news for mushroom growers as Australians seek to boost immunity, care for their mental health, and reduce meat consumption.
The three main takeaways were
1. Australians with diets that are all or almost all vegetarian have increased by 48% in the last five years
2. Australians prioritise healthy living and are trying to make environmentally conscious choices
3. Key insights for the horticultural industry are the accelerated reduction in meat in Australian diets, good economic outlook for fresh produce, and a return to pre-pandemic levels of media and advertising consumption
Image credits: Atomic 212°