Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1390079
AROUND THE WORLD Kerri Walsh Jennings Shines in Olympics Advertising One year ago, Kerri Walsh Jennings was training for her sixth Olympics and fourth gold medal in beach volleyball when the games were postponed due to the pandemic. Like the rest of us, Walsh Jennings had to put her plans on pause, and she saw this pause as an opportunity to spend time with her family while continuing her training to maintain peak performance. Cut to spring 2021, and Walsh Jennings and her teammate Brooke Sweat were back on the sand competing for their place on the U.S. Olympic team headed to the Tokyo 2021 Summer Olympics. Unfortunately, after multiple battles on the beach, Walsh Jennings and Sweat did not qualify for the Olympic team. The Almond Board of California (ABC) is proud to continue working with Walsh Jennings – the winningest player in beach volleyball history – as a spokesperson to build awareness of the value of snacking on almonds. After the postponement of the 2020 games, the Almond Board also put most of its marketing efforts with Walsh Jennings on hold. Now, with all eyes on the Tokyo Olympics, ABC's Global Market Development team is excited to put their promotional plans into action – this May through August, Walsh Jennings will be featured in California almonds advertising and public relations across broadcast television, social media and more. "We're excited to see our team's hard work take off after a year of planning and adjusting," said Becky Jeffers, ABC's manager of North America marketing. "We were fortunate to be able to extend our partnership with Kerri as she's been a strong partner over the past year and a half." Walsh Jennings enters "Almond Mode" In May 2021, ABC launched its first social media campaign featuring Walsh Jennings on Facebook and Instagram, reaching its new U.S. target audience named "Mindful Millennials." As part of this campaign, a series of videos will run from May through August that depict two aspects of Walsh Jennings' life: training on the beach near her California home and the role her family plays in supporting her journey to be her best self. In the videos, almonds are shown playing a key role in all that she does and helping her achieve "Almond Mode" – being physically, mentally and emotionally ready to compete. In addition to these videos, the Almond Board created a fun and quirky 15-second television commercial starring Walsh Jennings that depicts yet another way almonds help her "own her everyday, every day" (the theme of ABC's current North America marketing program). In the "Kerri's Kick-Casserole" commercial, the mother of three finds herself at a school potluck snacking on almonds when a misstep occurs, and she dives in – literally – to help. Set to music reminiscent of what one would hear at an Olympic ceremony, As a regular almond-snacker, Walsh Jennings knows how food impacts her ability to be her best both on and off the court, and she's even made almond snacking a habit for her family. 7