Sales of Zespri’s yellow SunGold kiwifruit have risen by 170 per cent in the past year in in North America, thanks to a wide ranging consumer marketing campaign.
“The Oppenheimer Group’s executive category director of tropical, Steve Woodyear-Smith, said: “Zespri has generated much consumer interest in SunGold this year with both new differentiating packaging and B2C media events laying a solid platform for continued growth on this excellent new item.”
One example is a sampling event held in New York gathering 35 magazine editors, high-profile bloggers and nutritionists, which resulted in over 275,000 impressions with 85 brand mentions.
Visitors at this weekend’s PMA Fresh Summit in Anaheim will be able to sample the variety at the marketer’s stand. Zespri is also co-sponsoring the Welcome Reception on Friday, 17 October, where there will be colourful food trucks serving food and drink incorporating kiwifruit.
Michele Hoard, Zespri’s senior marketing manager for North America said: “IT’s been a great season for us, with a bigger volume of SunGold available to this market and great promotional support. The consumer and trade response has been fantastic! This is a really fun and exciting piece of fruit to be able to offer to North America.”
