A CAMPAIGN encouraging shoppers to utilise their local independent greengrocer has won a national marketing award.
Fresh Markets Australia's (FMA) "A Better Choice - Shop&Win" campaign took out this year's 2021 PMA-Produce Plus Marketer of the Year Award (MOYA), sponsored by Seeka at the Hort Connections Gala Dinner last month.
FMA is the national organisation that represents the market chambers of each of Australia's central markets.
FMA created the Shop&Win competition as part of its A Better Choice program, which supports independent fruit and vegetable retailers across Australia with marketing initiatives that encourage consumers to shop at their stores.
Launched in March, Shop&Win was FMA's version of a shopper rewards programme, where the offer of substantial weekly prizes provided an incentive for consumers to shop at local independent grocers.
FMA national program manager James Patrick said it was a great honour for the team and all those involved around the country supporting Australia's local fruit and vegetable shops.
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"We are such a small player and team in such a big industry that's representing an important and sometimes forgotten sector, competing against multinational enterprises," Mr Patrick said.
"This campaign was created from start to finish in-house with minimal agency support, so winning MOYA 2021 means so much more to us, as there was immense effort and time put into this campaign by all those involved. Congratulations to all the other finalists."
With Mr Patrick unable to attend the gala dinner, FMA'S deputy chairman, Hamish Montague, accepted the award on behalf of his team.
MOYA judges said they were impressed by the way the campaign harnessed a wide range of marketing tools - from point-of-sale activations through to digital advertising - to drive awareness of the competition, along with participation
Between March 1 and April 15 (2021), the campaign's activations reached 2.7 million people, with more than 6 million impressions across radio, social channels and YouTube.
More than 265 stores were nominated as part of the competition during this time period, with 92,914 entries received from across Australia.
Produce Plus Magazine editor Matthew Jones said capturing such a large audience over a relatively short time was very impressive, and from all reports interest in the competition has continued to grow since MOYA nominations closed.
"The ability to unlock added value for a cluster of independently operated grocery stores also demonstrated a high degree of marketing innovation in the eyes of the judges," Mr Jones said.
There were four other finalists for the award:
- The LPG Cutri Fruit Global Team for the 'Saturn Peach by Galaxy Fruits' campaign
- Anna Tu from Hort Innovation for the 'Australian Cherries Brand' campaign
- Buy West Eat Best Marketing Team for the 'Good choice, WA' campaign
- Luke Couch from Nutrafruit for the 'No Ordinary Plum' campaign
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