Lone Star State raises awareness of Texas sweet onions

The 2021-22 Texas 1015 sweet onion marketing campaign has wrapped up for the season. This year’s marketing program focused on raising consumer and retailer awareness through a variety of platforms, engagements and awareness campaign efforts.  

After the brand launch in 2020, and consumer awareness campaign in 2021, the latest marketing campaign aimed to engage consumers through a restaurant week promotion that provided a direct connection to favorite dishes and popular restaurants to create and raise brand awareness, enhance messaging outreach and foster brand recognition.  The “Farmed by Texans, Famous by Families” program focused on telling the stories of history, place and people that make these onions special. Not to mention, they are among the first U.S.-grown sweet onions of the season.

Both traditional and digital marketing methods were used to connect with consumer audiences.  This year, the campaign resulted in over 18,000 direct social engagements, 16 new TX1015 recipes and cataloged over 25 million consumer impressions during the three-month push.  Additional efforts for engagement were made through a consumer e-newsletter with an astonishing 32 percent open rate and an online giveaway that garnered over 12,000 unique entries.  

“We continue to see rapid growth and higher than usual engagement, validating what we believed — there is a lot of consumer interest in the Texas 1015 sweet onion story, confirming our approach to connecting with where and who grows their food,” said Dante Galeazzi, manager of the South Texas Onion Committee and CEO and president of TIPA. “It has been astounding to watch the energy and excitement consumers have for Texas onions and I’m eager to see what we’ll be able to accomplish next season.”