By Hannah Parry, Hort Innovation

Currently 53 percent of Australian households purchase onions every four weeks, but onions lag behind other staples like carrots and potatoes in purchase regularity. The Australian Onions FY25 Marketing Program, funded by the onion marketing levy and led by Hort Innovation, focused on encouraging 8.8 million ‘light buyers’ – those who buy onions infrequently – to encourage more frequent use of onions in meals.

The campaign’s core messages focus on onions’ taste, versatility, and health benefits. Leveraging cultural calendar moments as hooks for earned media coverage, the strategy aims to keep onions in the spotlight year-round. Each cultural moment, or ‘spike’, delves into a distinct benefit of onions, ensuring a well-rounded campaign narrative.

To bring the campaign to life, popular media personality and relatable home-cook Mary Kalifatidis is serving as the campaign ambassador. She is sharing onion-centric recipes with her 113,000 Instagram followers and 27,800 TikTok followers, inspiring them to consistently incorporate onions into their culinary creations. By tapping into cultural moments, she is providing contextual relevance for onions.

Beyond these targeted bursts, a continuous social media presence will ensure consistent brand messaging and extend campaign reach to a broader audience. Australian Onions will share content on Meta and TikTok, aligning with search and cultural trends to keep onions top-of-mind for consumers.

Spike 1

The Australian Smashburger – November 2024

Tapping into the viral Oklahoma Onion Smashburger trend, Mary put a unique Aussie spin on the recipe using Australian brown onions as the hero ingredient. Her content, also utilising signature Aussie toppings like cheese, bacon, and egg, resonated strongly with audiences, achieving:

• 2 million views on Meta and 391k on TikTok
• 2,400 likes on Instagram and 5,200 on TikTok
• High engagement, with strong saves and share rates, indicative of consumer intent to replicate the recipe.

Mary was also interviewed by 9Honey Kitchen, where she gave 1.1 million readers her top tips on cutting and cooking with onions. The article had an editorial feel, hitting the key messages of versatility, depth, and boldness of flavour, with multiple mentions of Australian Onions throughout, as well as a direct link to the Australian Onions website for readers to learn more about why onions should be the first ingredient.

Retail World also shared the smashburger recipe and Mary’s commentary in an online article, incorporating supplied imagery and six mentions of Australian Onions.

The story was also picked up by Farm Weekly and shared across The Land, Queensland Country Life, Stock Journal, and other agricultural publications. The article featured quotes from Mary emphasising the humble onion’s ability to add boldness and depth to every meal, as well as her content, showcasing onions as the very first ingredient. Once again, Aussie Onions achieved multiple mentions throughout, and articles linked directly to the Australian Onions website.

Total reach from media coverage exceeded 2 million readers across multiple platforms.

Spike 2

The Aussie Onion Dip – December 2024

Timed with summer entertaining, Mary shared a unique ‘Aussie Onion Dip’ recipe – a twist on the traditional French onion dip recipe, featuring delicious Australian brown onions as the first ingredient.

The post performed well, reaching 526,000 people on Meta and 280,000 on TikTok, demonstrating strong audience interest.

Across both spikes, coverage has resulted in strong reach results overall with 734,000 on Aussie Onions Meta, 511,000 on Aussie Onions TikTok, 391,000 on Mary’s channels and 10 pieces of media coverage at an estimated reach of 2.36 million people.

What’s next for Australian Onions?

Recent data from NielsenIQ highlights positive growth in the onion category for the year ending 29 December 2024, with dollar sales up 4 percent and volume increasing by 2.2 percent compared to the prior year. These results indicate that recent marketing efforts are successfully influencing consumer behaviour, positioning Australian onions for continued success in the year ahead.

Media activity is also set to ramp up, with national broadcast coverage secured on The Morning Show (reaching up to 1.6 million viewers) on 6 February 2025. Mary will showcase onions in a live cooking demonstration, preparing the popular smashburger and onion dip recipes.

Additionally, onions will take centre stage in the Sydney Morning Herald’s My Day on a Plate feature, where Mary’s daily meal plan will highlight them as a must-have ingredient. With a reach of over 7 million readers, this coverage will reinforce onions’ versatility and importance in everyday cooking.

With strong foundations already in place and exciting initiatives on the horizon, the Australian Onions marketing program is well-positioned to drive lasting consumer behaviour change – establishing onions as the first ingredient in every great meal.