Almond Board's Clever Campaign Captures French Audience

The Almond Board of California (ABC) conducted an innovative marketing campaign in France, designed to captivate the French audience with humor and creativity. Dariela Roffe-Rackind, ABC's European marketing director, said the campaign leveraged the high energy and excitement surrounding the Paris 2024 Olympics without the hefty price tag of official sponsorship.

Long-Lasting Energy: The Foundation 

ABC's current messaging in France revolves around the theme of "long-lasting energy." This concept is cleverly encapsulated in ABC’s ongoing campaign, "Mettez la fatigue à l’amande” that highlights the energy-boosting benefits of almonds through humorous scenarios. For instance, a family is on a road trip and the parents, energized by almonds, outlast their exhausted kids in the backseat, or a woman, reinvigorated by almonds, keeps up with her lively dog after a long day at work. These relatable and funny scenes have successfully resonated with the French audience, laying a strong foundation for the new campaign.

Capitalizing on the French Buzz 

Recognizing the buzz surrounding the Paris 2024 Olympics, ABC aimed to harness this excitement. However, the cost of becoming an official Olympic sponsor — starting at $50 million — was prohibitive. Additionally, strict rules govern non-sponsors' usage of Olympic-related imagery and terminology. To navigate these challenges, ABC devised a clever strategy: position themselves as the "unofficial sponsor of unofficial sports." 

The Unofficial Sports Campaign 

With the help of their marketing agency, ABC crafted a campaign – “the unofficial sponsor of unofficial sports” – that references unconventional sports and nutrition in a humorous and memorable way. "We wanted to use the existing tone of our current campaign in France but be even bolder and funnier, and even more absurd to really help us stand out and have a message that would be relatable,” Roffe-Rackind said.

The sports, which are both very real and energy-demanding, include underwater hockey (snorkeling and hockey on the bottom of a pool), artistic cycling (think acrobatics while riding a bike) and others like unicycle hockey and the internet sensation, Hobby Horse (an imaginative form of equestrianism). "We did a lot of research to find these sports which we think are probably invisible to a lot of people, but they're just as interesting and probably even more demanding energy-wise than some of the regular sports that are in the Olympics in some cases because they require these athletes to be doing two sports at the same time,” Roffe-Rackind added. 

Leveraging Influencers for Greater Impact 

To echo the current humorous tone of French marketing efforts, ABC collaborated with popular French comedian and influencer, Léa Camilleri (pictured right). In a series of entertaining videos, Camilleri pretends to be a former athlete of these unconventional sports and their number one fan. "She went in with a lot of enthusiasm, interviewed them, talked about how her career ended in these sports in a very humorous, entertaining way,” Roffe-Rackind said. "And in all those scenes, you see her carrying her bowl of almonds, offering them to the athletes as the solution to that long-lasting energy that you need to perform these two sports at the same time."