Mission, Texas – The Texas Onion Industry is proud to announce this past season was nothing short of exciting and successful. Consumers expressed their eagerness to add the TX1015 Sweet Onion back onto their plate as their favorite vegetable was back on shelves. Unique and innovative marketing activities such as an online social influencer program, sweepstakes, restaurant week promotion, KSAT TV partnership, and more drew a larger audience empowering people to support local foods.
As digital marketing continues to drive grocery sales, enacting a strong, yet sweet, influencer program was key to reaching millennial and younger age brackets. The creators included recipe developers, authors, and bloggers who all have a passion for creating ravishing meals -with local ingredients at the heart of their cooking. The total reactions including views, likes, comments, shares, and engagement was 343,165.
After two years of wild success, the Third Annual Restaurant Week returned to the Rio Grande Valley with 17 food trucks and restaurants who created dishes using the TX1015 Sweet Onion. The campaign encouraged establishments to take their cooking skills to new heights by making creative recipes while still staying true to their cooking style. This year a finale event was held at the McAllen Food Truck Park where attendees gathered for a celebration of local food, music, and arts and had the opportunity to taste the sweet creations for themselves. Online promotions for the event and public voting garnered a 2,200.7% increase in brand awareness.
“Our marketing activities are created with the purpose of sparking a connection between the product and the consumer’”, remarks Dante Galeazzi, President of the Texas International Produce Association. “It is imperative to tell the story of our state vegetable and by enacting a range of well-developed and specifically targeted tactics, we are expanding the sweet onion category one layer at time.”
The team also released a cookbook titled “Sweet Flavors of The Lone Star State” A TX1015 Cookbook highlighting trending recipes, fun facts, and educational tidbits. The book intends to provide the average shopper the tools to find their inner chef. From main dishes to enticing snacks, the recipe collection showcases the nutritious and delicious attributes the TX1015 offers, and the diversity of its use.
For the second year in a row, David Elder, host of Texas Eats, created an on-air segment along with social posts highlighting the TX1015 Sweet Onion. Historical facts, a raw onion taste test, and a new recipe were just a few examples of the fun content Edler posted. The partnership reached both current and future Texas shoppers looking for new items to add to their grocery list. The total social reactions were 52,169.
“On behalf of the Texas Onion Industry, we are very proud of the accomplishments we saw from this year’s campaign. Texas grows by more than 850 citizens per day, which is a lot of new people to introduce the TX1015 Sweet Onion to. By establishing stronger connections within major Texas and national markets, we continue to increase recognition and consumer preference, putting Texas onions in a great position for next season, “concludes Galeazzi.
This work was funded, in whole or in part, by the US Department of Agriculture-Agriculture Marketing Service under the Specialty Crop Block Grant administered by the Texas Department of Agriculture.
Contact your Texas onion sales agent to plan your TX1015 program for the 2024/2025 season. For more information, crop reports, updates, marketing tools, videos, recipes, and everything TX1015 Sweet Onions, visit tx1015.com. Sign up for the TX1015 newsletter to stay up to date, and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest.
Mark your calendars for more Texas 1015 sweet onions in March 2025.
