The annual integrated marketing campaign for South Africa’s topfruit and stonefruit industries, which runs with the ‘Beautiful Country, Beautiful Fruit’ tagline, will return for a fourth time in December, aiming to drive sales and awareness throughout 2012/13.
The campaign has been upgraded to introduce ethical messages as a key part of the marketing strategy, highlighting the role that the country’s fruit industry is playing in the development of South Africa.
Some of the messages coming from the campaign include: the information that around 330,000 people are employed in the topfruit industry, with an average of four dependants; the affordable, sustainable and fairly traded nature of South Africa’s fruit; and the fact that approximately 99 per cent of South African fruit is shipped, not flown. This ethical focus will be applied to the campaign as part of activity both in and out of stores, in addition to the familiar messages about taste and the overall high quality of South African fruit.
This season’s drive will incorporate a short film produced to communicate the industry’s ethical and sustainable initiatives. It will be used to support PR activity and in social media and on-pack campagins. A public debate will also be held and broadcast in 2013; this will tackle the ethics of eating fruit.
Meanwhile, the Help a South African School competition, which was launched this year, will run for the second time in 2013. Working with the South African embassy in London, the competition encourages children in the UK to learn about South African food and culture while donating unwanted books to rural schools in the Western Cape.
“The ethics of eating is increasingly high up consumers’ agendas, so it’s a good time to introduce to them the crucial role that fruit has been playing in the development of new South Africa during the last decade and a half,” explains Jacques Du Preez, product manager for topfruit and stonefruit at Hortgro Services in South Africa. “We have been working to empower and create jobs for previously disadvantaged people in South Africa, preparing them for management and ownership of fruit farms. It’s a significant and positive process of change for the country and many shoppers don’t yet understand that they are supporting it with every piece of fruit they buy.”
As well as offering an additional ethical emphasis, the campaign will also boast reworked creativity in 2013, with the strapline ‘South Africa’s Pride’ being adopted and new images selected to convey the positive future that the country’s fruit industry is helping to build through the creation of jobs and ethical practices.
“During the last three seasons, the stonefruit and topfruit industries have established a distinctive promotional campaign which, across the seasons for these two categories, creates visibility for South African fruit for approximately nine months of the year,” Du
Preez adds.
“Working closely with retailers and media, we have been communicating the fantastic eating quality, key seasons and unique varieties we produce in South Africa to encourage consumers to choose our fruit. We believe the addition of an ethical call to action complements these messages very well – and gives UK shoppers further motivation to seek out South African produce on the shelf."
