With just a few days left before the Chinese New Year celebrations, Chile is ramping up its cherry marketing campaign in China.
For the second year in a row, Cherries from Chile has teamed up with JD.com for “Super Cherries Day”, a joint campaign that seeks to promote Chilean cherries through the online sales platform.
The campaign was launched at the Jingdong headquarters of JD.com in Beijing, where a contest was held for the company’s employees.
Contestants had to navigate their way into a giant pool full of red balls, symbolising Chilean cherries, to find hidden prizes.
“Participants took part in pairs – one person had to drive a small crane, on the end of which the other person was attached, dropping them into the pool to retrieve the prizes,” explained Charif Christian Carvajal, marketing director of Asoex for Asia, the Middle East and Europe.
The event was attended by José Miguel González of the Chilean Embassy in Beijing, as well as executives from ProChile and JD.com.
Chile shipped 160,000 tonnes of fresh cherries to China last season, accounting for 85 per cent of its total export volume.
The industry has spent US$5m on its promotional campaign, which spans a wide range of distribution channels.
“Although these are specific actions to promote our cherries, we’re also encouraging the consumption of other Chilean fruits, including blueberries, table grapes and stonefruit, since China is undoubtedly one of our most important markets,” Carvajal said.
