Aug 7, 2023

As season ends, South Texas Onion Committee reports successful marketing year

As this year’s south Texas sweet onion harvest finishes, the year’s retail and consumer promotions for the TX1015 sweet onions exceeded campaign goals.

Harvest of the Texas 1015 onions has wrapped up. Although excessive and heavy rains damaged some fields, yields were plentiful, and demands were met thanks to the hard work of Texas farmers and farm workers, according to a news release. The rising popularity of the Texas 1015 has resulted in a nearly 40% increase in acreage planted this year, the South Texas Onion Committee (STOC) reports.

The STOC was busy April through mid-July promoting Texas 1015 Sweet Onions, resulting in another record-breaking marketing program this spring and early summer focusing on increasing brand awareness and sales of the Texas 1015 Sweet Onion.

This year, STOC launched their most comprehensive campaign to date including live, print, digital, television, and in-store promotions throughout the season, aimed at retailers, consumers, and trade, according to the release.

STOC kicked off the Texas 1015 season with a Virtual Field Tour at the Viva Fresh Expo where 184 participants, mainly retailers, had a first-hand look at the field and the process that goes into delivering the sweetest Texas 1015 sweet onions.

“The virtual field tours are always popular and “get back to the dirt” by providing a valuable look inside the operations that deliver our nation’s first sweet onion to market each year. Because the tour is live, it is like visiting the operation for yourself and creates great dialogue between our Texas farmers and the stores that will eventually offer Texas 1015 sweet onions to consumers,” Dante Galeazzi, STOC manager and Texas International Produce Association president, said in the release.

Consumer-focused promotions included a social media campaign that garnered a nearly 15% increase in followers from 2022, a sweepstakes bringing in over 260,000 unique entries and 1.3 million engagements, and a food influencer recipe program and contest featuring seven influencers and harvesting over 600 live votes, according to the release.

New to consumer promotions this year and greatly amplifying promotion reach were an Instacart ad campaign and story segments published by Texas food legend David Elder of KSAT12’s Texas Eats on television, social media, and digital.

Rounding out 2023’s consumer promotions was the highly anticipated, and always popular TX1015 Restaurant Week. Hosted in the Rio Grande Valley, this event featured seven restaurants who highlighted their delicious local fare featuring Texas 1015 sweet onions and boosting engagement throughout.

Designed to increase awareness around the Texas 1015 season and availability, the campaign integrated retailer promotions and trade advertising together with this season’s program. STOC partnered with three Texas retailers to promote sales with in-store and digital promotions and a season-long ad campaign in popular trade publications.

“The proof is in the numbers. This year’s robust campaign successfully reached audiences directly, through social media, through retail, and through trade – and it left an impact,” Galeazzi said in the release.