With a host of great eating apples already on store shelves, Crunch Time Apple Growers is aggressively taking its message about SnapDragon apples to consumers. And the campaign is working for this 145-member, New York grower-owned company.

This fall, Crunch Time Apple Growers relaunched the offspring of Honeycrisp with a multi-tiered approach — a separate new website, fresh social media channels and a whole new look for the apple poised to replace older varieties in the produce aisle. Crunch Time is the official apple sponsor of popular Tough Mudder events across the country, which boasts an online audience of over 3 million. The company is also partnering with Schwinn Bicycles to promote SnapDragons by giving away a bike each week through November.

Consumer engagement key
“We discovered when we executed our online strategy that there was an audience of SnapDragon enthusiasts out there waiting for our apple and trying to buy it before we even started picking,” says Rena Montedoro, marketing director of Crunch Time Apple Growers. That led to the company’s “Seek the Snap” campaign running through December.

On Facebook, SnapDragon fans sharing where they purchased their SnapDragons can be entered to win free apples and a tote bag. “We want to further engage our online fans as well as show retailers that consumers are demanding our product and sometimes go to great lengths to get their ‘Snaps,’” says Montedoro.

More than 8,000 people signed up in the first week of the Schwinn promotion on the SnapDragon website.  On the Facebook and Twitter side, SnapDragon views jumped from 15 to more than 85,000 in 60 days. Traditional marketing methods help, says Montedoro, but conversations on Facebook with their core consumers tell the real story: “People love this apple. Our consumers tell us SnapDragon has replaced every other apple for them, including Honeycrisp.

“Demand has been exceptionally strong due in part to dynamic consumer engagement promotions. We’ve sold out at some of our U-pick farms very quickly. We anticipate meeting our 2017 sales volume projections – around 80,000 bushels.”

From a marketing perspective, this is gold for the 145 farms that realized a 60% increase in harvest this year. Learn more at crunchtimeapplegrowers.com and snapdragonapple.com.

Source: Crunch Time Apple Growers