Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1170186
AROUND THE WORLD 13 ABC U.S. Marketing Campaign Features World Cup Athlete, Julie Ertz With women's soccer growing in popularity globally beyond the avid soccer fan, the Almond Board of California (ABC) saw a great opportunity to build awareness of California almonds with ABC's U.S. female consumers by launching an advertising campaign around the Federation of Association Football (FIFA) Women's World Cup, held earlier this year in France. And, to make the campaign as impactful as possible, ABC engaged one of the women's team's leading players, Julie Ertz. Ertz appeared in advertisements during the World Cup and also acted as a public relations spokeswoman for California almonds over the past crop year. Like the industry, Ertz rises to each challenge Ertz was named the 2017 National Player of the Year by U.S. Soccer and continues to be a key contributor to the U.S. Women's National Team in its mounting success. She even scored a goal against Chile during the World Cup! During her career, Ertz transitioned from playing as a center back to a defensive midfielder. While she had played in the back line her entire career, Ertz saw this position change as an opportunity to challenge herself, continue to grow as a soccer player and prove to herself and others that she was capable of owning the midfield. This element of Ertz's soccer story made her a great fit for ABC's "Own Your Everyday, Every Day" U.S. marketing campaign. The campaign highlights how the natural, healthy energy almonds provide can power people through all their tasks in a day, from the simple to the complex. In the months leading up to the World Cup, the Almond Board leveraged Ertz's popularity on social media to show her followers how she snacks on almonds regularly and to encourage them to join her in signing a petition to create an almond emoji. ABC also filmed several short videos capturing Ertz's "everyday" life – from reviewing game footage to working for her family's foundation – to show how snacking on almonds keeps her energized throughout the day. World Cup campaign results The Almond Board's advertisements featuring Ertz were shown during select games on Fox Sports and FS1 through both traditional broadcasting and online streaming services. Ads also ran on YouTube, ESPN's Golic & Wingo show, the ESPN mobile app and on the California Almonds Facebook, Instagram and Twitter accounts. By promoting these advertisements through multiple mediums and on multiple social platforms, the Almond Board U.S. marketing team was able to reach its consumer base with a sort of 360° surround sound that shared the California almonds message from every angle. "Working with Julie Ertz to capitalize on this special sporting event allowed for a great cultural connection and integration for California almonds, and increased the popularity of almond snacking," said Becky Jeffers, manager of North America Marketing at ABC. "Seeing all the positive response through social media really confirmed that we had a winning campaign that allowed us to effectively spread our message about the benefits of almonds." Here's how ABC's Women's World Cup advertisements performed: f 51.5 million impressions were achieved by covering the ESPN.com and ESPN mobile app's home pages with California almond ads. f Visitors spent, on average, over three minutes on an Almond Board webpage dedicated entirely to content created with Ertz. This average time is more than double that spent on other Almonds.com pages and means that page visitors spent an above-average amount of time interacting with this content. f The general public published 378,000 tweets about California almonds between June 7 and July 9, a 32% increase over the previous data period. f 222 million impressions and 64 million video views were generated through paid social media across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat and YouTube. ABC's advertisements featuring Ertz highlighted the six grams of protein packed in a one ounce serving of almonds and the energy those almonds provide throughout the day.