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A prime time Super Bowl spot and an aggressive digital campaign is probably the kind of marketing push you’d expect to see from beer, snack food and luxury cars, but fresh produce? Yet, during the second quarter of Super Bowl XLIX, there was Avocados From Mexico among the big brand heavyweights, aiming to own guacamole with a clever spot called “First Draft Ever.”
Mexico is the leading supplier of avocados in the United States and represents nearly 70 percent of all avocado volume. Avocados grow continuously in Mexico with four blooms annually, so nearly 100 percent of the U.S. market in winter comes from Mexico. This was the first time a fresh produce brand had advertised during what is traditionally referred to as the biggest advertising event of the year. I caught up post-game with Alvaro Luque, president of Avocados From Mexico (AFM) who said the Big Game was a perfect fit with AFM’s big plans to reach the consumer with a more emotional connection.
“Brand building is critical to our overall strategy and the Big Game offered a significant platform to tell our story,” said Luque. “The ‘First Draft Ever’ spot was the centerpiece of a complete Big Game experience. We wanted to connect with the consumer on a different level, much like a CPG brand, and go beyond our traditional messages of product excellence to engage consumers in a whole new way.”
The humorous “First Draft Ever” was a standout among the more emotional ads that proliferated during Super Bowl XLIX. Presenting an entertaining approach to international draft picks hosted by NFL commentators Doug Flutie and Jerry Rice, Mexico chooses to draft the avocado noting that the country is ideal for growing perfect, smooth avocados throughout the year. Luque said the high profile spot was just one component in a broader consumer engagement effort backed by marketing agency support from GSD&M, Ketchum and Havas.
“Football fans love guacamole, and we knew that early February meant they’d be eating guacamole made with Avocados from Mexico during the Big Game,” said Luque. “But, we needed to go beyond the ad and dominate real-time social media to multiply the power of the spot and create real engagement with our fans.”
AFM and its agency partners staged an aggressive social media push once the spot had aired, driving consumers towards a revamped AFM site experience and seven surprising online videos on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter that formed the foundation for a day-long giveaway event. Consumers who shared or retweeted posts and videos were eligible to win a range of Mexican-themed prizes, including a 1970s model El Camino, a live performance by a mariachi band and several hundred pounds of fresh avocados from Mexico.
“When we saw the number of consumers engaged and sharing our content, we knew we’d struck a cord and multiplied the value of the initial ad buy,” said Luque.
The buzz was significant and the campaign scored big for AFM. According to NBC Network, the Super Bowl shattered ratings records and Entertainment Weekly Online ranked the “First Draft Ever” spot No. 3 of all ads broadcast that evening. Adobe Marketing Cloud listed the social media effort as No. 2 among all Big Game advertisers and USA Today “Ad Meter” ranked the AFM campaign No. 2 among advertisers with social media buzz increasing more than 3,000 percent on game night over an average day.
Luque said the results were gratifying. “The response from the trade and our partners has been overwhelmingly favorable,” he said. “Avocados From Mexico made history as the first-ever fresh produce product to advertise during TV’s biggest event of the year, and we’re proud of that milestone. But we’re also incredibly pleased that we were able to leverage and extend that investment to really build our brand and creating a deeper relationship with our target consumer.”
This is a sponsored post on behalf of Avocados from Mexico.
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