The Power Of Mushrooms Revealed At Last

Most people think mushrooms are either a fruit or a vegetable. Wrong! Mushrooms belong to their own biological kingdom and are highly influential in our well being. The Australian Mushrooms Growers Association (AMGA) has now proven that mushrooms have important health benefits for the heart, blood pressure, weight management and even cancer prevention.

Greg Seymour, GM of AMGA has been working on this project for over ten years. After extensive research, testing and approval from key local and global health authorities, the power of mushrooms has been revealed in a new television campaign featuring Ed Halmagyi.

The strategy and creative campaign “The Power of Mushrooms” was a collaborative effort between the AMGA team, led by Greg Seymore and Brand Transformation Specialists, Traffic, who have worked with AMGA for the past eight years. The campaign focused on alerting customers to the many health benefits of mushrooms. The brown paper bags, which are synonymous with mushroom purchasing and storage, were used as a vehicle for communication, both in store and in the TVC.

The campaign was test marketed in Tasmania, where sales of fresh mushrooms increased a staggering 26% when consumers were alerted to the many health benefits. This result was astonishing considering research confirmed that mushrooms rarely made it onto shopping lists. After the test campaign, it was discovered that most purchases were made on impulse at point of sale.

Traffic CEO, Andrew Begg explained that the campaign strategy was to surprise and educate consumers with real product truths to make mushrooms a ‘must have’ purchase every week. Andrew developed a range of animated mushroom characters to convey specific benefits to demonstrate an overall health message. Additionally, the paper bag ‘device’ was used to create a powerful image and constant reminder of mushrooms and their natural health benefits.

Greg Seymour was impressed with the test market result. “The perceived awareness of the health benefits of mushrooms leapt from 35% to 56%. The University of California was later asked to independently audit the findings and we wanted to share the results with the community to get more people eating more mushrooms more often. At least three a day”.

Andrew Begg declared the AMGA test campaign as one of the most successful Traffic has created. The campaign will be supported by social media, a digital campaign, in store POS, recipe leaflets, PR events and a website that will make all who visit it healthier if they choose to make the many mushroom recipes on the website.

THE POWER OF MUSHROOMS CAMPAIGN: OBJECTIVES AND TEST MARKET RESULTS.

Health Benefits:

Objective: Inform and engage consumers about the specific health properties of mushrooms.
Result: Perception of health benefits leapt from 35% to 56% of consumers who considered mushrooms healthier than they previously did.

Purchase Intention:

Objective: Increase purchase intention by 5%.
Result: Post campaign results confirmed 25% of consumers purchased mushrooms more often representing an overall increase of 8% over pre campaign.

Consumption – 3 mushrooms a day:

Objective: Get consumers to eat 3 mushrooms every day as opposed to current consumption of one mushroom every three days.
Result: Post campaign testing confirmed that 23% more consumers prepared more meals with mushrooms than they previously did.

Power of Mushroom Campaign testing:

• Awareness of tagline ‘Power of Mushrooms’ was 81%
• Likeability of the campaign was 60%
• Prompted awareness of tagline was 34%.
• Non participating supermarket chain – % growth 11.4%
• Participating supermarket chain – % growth 25.3%

In summary:

In aggregate around 35% overall said that advertising had influenced them in some type of behavioural outcome over the two research rounds.

• An average of 21% believed it led them to purchase more mushrooms than usual.
• An average of 21% increased the number of meals prepared with mushrooms at home
• An average of 18% indicated they had purchased a greater quantity than previously.

As a result of the test market AMGA briefed Traffic on implementing a national television campaign, which went to air in April 2015.