August's Marketing Bulletin from the Almond Board of California.

A Partnership of Legends: California Almonds + Prime Time

California Almonds are going Prime Time! The Almond Board of California (ABC) is launching a new one-of-a-kind partnership of legends with the one and only Coach Prime himself, Deion Sanders. Coach Prime is a legendary, multi-sport athlete turned coach and almonds are a legendary, multi-benefit packed snack with promising new research around exercise recovery. Both continually redefine what is possible.

In the biggest celebrity partnership ABC has taken part in, Deion Sanders will bring excitement and his iconic boldness to promote a groundbreaking research study around the exercise recovery benefits of almonds. The Own Your Prime campaign will give an inside look at what keeps Prime in his prime: consistency, hard work and recovering with almonds. 

The Own Your Prime campaign will come to life in the US market, launching at the beginning of the NCAA football season with advertisements airing on national and cable TV on CBS, Fox, ESPN and CBS Sports. The fully integrated campaign will run for 9 months, including a robust advertising, digital, social and public relations program. The campaign will even include retail advertising in select California stores on grocery carts and in the snack nut aisle.

Representing approximately 30% of total almond shipments, the US continues to be the number one destination for California Almonds. Consumers have very positive perceptions of almonds, rating them as not only one of the healthiest nuts, but one of the healthiest snacks. Despite these positive perceptions, the US has been facing significant headwinds stemming from unprecedented macro forces that are impacting almond consumption, such as changes in how we eat coming out of COVID, evolving perspectives on health and wellness, food inflation and increased competitive pressures. The Own Your Prime campaign comes at a great time to reach a broad audience and help, in part, to offset these headwinds and by bringing excitement and new meaningful news to consumers.

The goal of the Own Your Prime campaign is to appeal to a broad US audience and break through the competitive clutter in a bold way. This campaign will showcase new nutrition research findings of almonds and provoke consumers to rethink almonds and the value they deliver. Coach Prime will help translate the exercise research findings to increased almond consumption by showing consumers how to own their prime. Learn more about the campaign at Almonds.com/OwnYourPrime.

Capitalizing on the Cricket World Cup

Several new almond marketing tactics for the India market will soon kick off as well, headlined by promotions around the ICC Cricket World Cup that will be back in India for the first time in 12 years.

The campaign is an opportunity to highlight the energy benefits of almonds as ads will run during the ICC Cricket World Cup in October and most of November, utilizing 10-second commercials that highlight those attributes of almonds. Tactics will also include billboards and bus shelters across the key markets of Delhi and Mumbai.

The ICC World Cup promotion also coincides with Diwali (Nov. 12), India’s biggest and most important holiday of the year. The event is a five-day-long festival of lights, joy, prosperity and happiness. It is a time of traditions during festival celebrations which includes the giving of food as gifts.