Fresh Retailing

New face behind national retail program

By James Patrick, National Program Manager, A better choice!

A joint initiative of Fresh Markets Australia (FMA) and the Central Markets Association of Australia (CMAA), the A better choice! (ABC) program is designed to encourage consumers to shop for fresh produce at their local independent retailer and I have recently taken on the role as ABC’s National Program Manager. FMA and CMAA have worked hand-inhand with industry to establish a strong digital presence and point of sale roll-out to retailers across all states. A National Retail Program Marketing Committee comprised of marketing representatives from state chambers and market landlords continue to have an overarching responsibility for the conduct of all marketing campaigns. Three national campaigns were developed and delivered throughout 2020, with the ‘Go To Those Who Know’ campaign running from March to May, the ‘Veg Into Winter’ campaign running from June to August, and the recently completed ‘Spring Fresh’ campaign that ran from September to November.

These campaigns featured national radio advertising, influencers, social media advertising and retailer point of sale merchandise. Some states took the opportunity to build on the campaigns with local extended channels utilising their promotions budgets including television advertising and expanded radio and digital coverage. In addition to the campaigns, the digital presence continued to be built with bespoke recipe development, blog articles and ‘always on’ social media with paid advertising and organic posts. Website development continues with the aim to build the user experience to bring to life the call to action – shopping at your local fruit and veg shop is A better choice!

A three-year, fully costed, national brand and marketing plan has been established to build on the learnings from the past two years. It consists of activities that provide a clear direction for the execution of marketing on a national scale.

The strategic framework aims to deliver two annual ownable buying occasions and uses advocates to help amplify the buying occasions. Social and digital media will continue as they stand out as the core channels to deliver costeffective consumer reach to convey our call to action.

Campaign results from January to June 2020

14 million consumers reached on social media

225k website sessions

175k Facebook followers

Spring Fresh campaign a success

The Spring Fresh campaign, which ran from September to November, showcased everyday families in the community supporting their local independent fruit shops. The campaign had two strong calls to action – “Look for the Logo” and “To find your local go to abetterchoice.com.au”. Point of sale material was distributed to A better choice! (ABC) retail stores to maximise the effectiveness of the campaign, with in-store activations including The campaign delivered strong results and Queensland extended the marketing even further with advertising driving community support for local independent fruit and vegetable shops via social media and television, which performed above projected performance targets. Television advertisements were placed on prime-time television programming across multiple channels including Channel Nine, Gem, Rush and Life in the Brisbane Metro area and on Channel 7 in regional areas.

unique recipe cards. Brisbane metro ads featured in between programs such as Nine News, The Block, Sunday Footy Show, Tipping point and Today Extra, with both channels and programming chosen specifically to target grocery buyers.

Keeping spring fresh: one of the advertisements used in the Spring Fresh campaign.

Join the ABC family

Being part of the national A better choice! (ABC) Retail Program is like gaining a whole new family. That’s the experience of Skippy’s Fresh Frootz at Victoria Point who have recently joined the program. Owner, Sam Eletri, saw the benefit of joining the ABC program to complement his brand. Like many ABC retailers, Mr Eletri’s ethos is to select fresh produce with great care, tasting and testing each morning from the Brisbane Produce Market. Skippy’s has a strong focus on supporting local Australian growers by choosing the best quality produce from as close to the source as possible. The benefits of being in ABC program include the license to use the ‘A better choice!’ brand, a managed social media presence, representation on the ABC website, participation in two campaigns each year with considerable TV, radio and digital advertising expenditure, in-store point of sale material, and business services provided by Brismark. Make A better choice! and join the ABC family along with hundreds of retailers nationally who reap the advantages of the program by contacting Brismark’s Communications and Program Executive, Lisa Alexiou, at Brismark on 0447 498 108.

Live your Life Virtual Expo

As a proud supporter of Diabetes Queensland, A better choice! (ABC) hosted an interactive virtual booth at the ‘Live Your Life’ expo at the end of National Diabetes Week in July. This virtual expo, a first of its kind for people living with diabetes in Australia, presented a similar experience to attending in person, however, there was no travel involved, no crowds, no parking issues and no stress in finding the venue. The event included the main auditorium where delegates could listen to 20-minute education sessions delivered by experts in their field. These sessions focused on supporting the emotional, physical and mental health of people living with diabetes. In the exhibition hall, delegates could meet and view associated businesses who offered a wide range of products and services to support people living with diabetes with managing their condition. The virtual ABC booth displayed images of independent retailers, fresh produce, and the ‘Shop Local to Veg In this Winter’ campaign television advertisement. This booth aimed to educate visitors about the importance of shopping for fresh fruit and vegetables from the local independent retailers and redirected consumers to the store locator on the ABC website.

Finally, the activity centre contained a fun and interactive treasure hunt designed to help the diabetes community explore the different areas of the event and to provide some extra education along the way. More than 3,000 people living with diabetes registered for the event with approximately 1,300 delegates participating in the various activities at the event’s peak viewing time.

“Eating a healthy diet that includes a range of fresh fruit and vegetables is important to the health and wellbeing of people who live with diabetes,” Diabetes Queensland CEO, Sturt Eastwood, said. “Having the support of partners like the Brisbane Produce Market who are there to help share this message with our community through events like the virtual expo is so important to us.”