food

Hass Avocados A-Peel To College Football Fans

John-Lynch

Football season is prime season for avocado consumption, in no small part due to the popularity of guacamole dip at game parties.  

But this year, the Hass Avocado Board (HAB) has launched an ambitious campaign to encourage college football fans to enjoy the fruit in a wide range of game-friendly recipes.

"We're getting the word out to college football fans that our avocados make all kinds of game foods better, from burgers and hot dogs to salads and a variety of snacks," says Jose Luis Obregon, director of HAB, which markets Hass Avocados on behalf of some 20,000 producers and 100 importers spanning California, Chile, Mexico, New Zealand and the Dominican Republic.

The campaign's focal point is an online recipe contest (at avocadokickoff.com) offering a grand prize of four tickets to the 2011 Rose Bowl game for the recipe voted best by site users. "Official avocado kickoff" recipe submissions can take the form of a photo and description, a blog or a video (posted by Oct. 25). Entrants are being encouraged to get their friends to vote for, and use social media to share, their recipes.

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The sweepstakes is being promoted via a 30-second TV spot featuring retired NFL star John Lynch. The commercial, from Dentsu America (Santa Monica), shows Lynch being repeatedly shut out of a game-watching party until he finally gets the message and returns bearing a tray of hors d'oeuvres made with Hass Avocados.

Fox Sports proposed the concept for an endorsement campaign, and the spot is airing throughout the college football season during Fox Sports' coverage of targeted regional college games and during the network's national programming, according to Obregon. (It's also viewable on YouTube.)

Lynch was chosen for the endorsement because his fan base is particularly strong in regions that are also key markets for Hass, explains Obregon. (Lynch made his name in college football at Stanford, and played pro ball for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Denver Broncos and New England Patriots, earning a Super Bowl ring and nine selections to play the Pro Bowl along the way.)

While endorsement campaigns might seem daunting for relatively small organizations, Obregon notes that the time involved from endorsement proposal/signing through live creative spanned only a few weeks, in part because of a database-driven, endorsement candidate selection online platform offered by talent strategy/fulfillment partner Brand Affinity Technologies.

HAB has run a number of campaigns since its establishment in 2002, but most (including a current one targeted to Major League Baseball fans) have focused on pro sports, says Obregon.

The new, college game-oriented "Kick Off with Hass Avocados" campaign also represents HAB's biggest campaign investment to date, and its first to include national TV exposure, he reports.

The campaign also encompasses POS promotion materials in supermarkets and tailgating/sampling events at the Rose Bowl and three college games played in Seattle, California (Stanford) and Pennsylvania. In addition, HAB is promoting the sweepstakes on its Facebook page.

Some online elements of the campaign will continue through next August.

Hass avocados, which grow on trees that are all descended from a single "mother tree" cultivated and patented by Rudolph Hass in the 1930's, account for about 80% of all avocados eaten worldwide and generate more than $1 billion annual sales in the U.S. alone, according to the California Avocado Commission.

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