Almond board turns to science, Sanders to build demand
John Cox, The Bakersfield Californian
Updated 5 min read
Aug. 27—If scientists say eating almonds help muscles recover more quickly after a workout, then that's what some weekend warriors are probably going to do — especially if a coach tells them to.
That's the idea behind an upcoming, nationwide marketing campaign designed to help offset an oversupply of Kern County's fourth highest-grossing crop.
To spread word about new nutrition research out of North Carolina, the Almond Board of California has hired pitchman Deion Sanders, the University of Colorado, Boulder football coach who remains the only person to have played in both the Super Bowl and the World Series.
A series of commercials focused on the theme "Own Your Prime" is set to kick off Saturday with a pair of college nationally televised football games. Sanders, wearing shades and surrounded by almond opulence, will spread the message that the nut is a uniquely beneficial snack for people who exercise.
It's not the board's first time hiring a sports figure to promote almonds — the last was volleyball star Kerri Walsh Jennings, a three-time Olympic gold medalist. The difference is that instead of targeting women for their shopping leadership, the Sanders campaign is geared more toward demographics from the recent nutrition study: people between the ages of 30 and 65 looking to do more exercise.
"This is really an overall effort to reach a broader male and female demographic across the country," said the board's president and CEO, Richard Waycott.
The organization is taking different messages to major export markets as it helps the industry make progress on a large carryover inventory amid this year's significant decreases in domestic and, to a larger extent, international sales.
In India, the top consumer of California almonds after the United States, advertisements timed to run concurrent with this fall's Cricket World Cup will promote the nut's energy and exercise-recovery benefits for people who play the country's biggest sport.
In California almonds' No. 4 export market, Germany, an ad campaign starting this month will play up almonds' ancient role in the human diet with commercials themed around Mother Nature.
Research commissioned by the almond board and led by David C. Nieman at the Human Performance Laboratory at Appalachian State University's North Carolina Research Campus looked at whether eating 57 grams per day of almonds for four weeks helped people who don't often exercise with post-exercise inflammation and muscle soreness and damage.
Compared with participants who ate cereal bars instead, results from those who snacked on nuts were associated with reduced post-exercise fatigue and tension and higher levels of leg and back strength. The study found data suggesting positive effects of almond intake in improving mood state, retaining strength and decreasing muscle damage.
"What we found tells us definitively that almonds should be added to sports nutrition strategies to help people recover better from exercise," Nieman, the performance lab's principal investigator, said in a statement.
"Almonds are food for fitness," he wrote. "Carbs get most of the attention when it comes to fueling for exercise, but almonds offer a nutrition package, including good unsaturated fats, the antioxidant vitamin E and proanthocyanidins (a class of polyphenols, which are protective compounds in plants) that help explain the beneficial outcomes in our study."
Or as "Coach Prime" Sanders put it in a news release, "You can't achieve your prime unless you put in the work ... daily! In order to be your best you, you gotta recover with the right stuff," he said.
"It's all about consistency! I'm partnering with California Almonds to share how almonds help me stay prime all the time," he stated. "It don't stop, baby!"
President Melinda Goodman at Wisconsin-based FullTilt Marketing, who is not involved in the almond campaign, observed Americans live in a lifestyle-based culture looking for the "fountain of youth, typically via an easier pathway, even a pill...so what better solution than a healthy food like almonds."
Even watercress is having a moment, Goodman noted in an email, noting that peer and influencer persuasion, often by social media, "are typically how we learn about new diets, new supplements, new exercise trends and even top foods.
"Deion Sanders represents someone in his prime years, no pun intended, that continues to reinvent himself and find career and life success, despite some health setbacks of his own."
"Fifty is no longer old," she added. "Even 60 and 70 aren't considered old by today's standards as we work to stay young longer. Generation X and Baby Boomers are living more active lives and they are looking for both inspiration and tools to help them be healthy, live longer and continue the lifestyles and hobbies they enjoy."
Waycott with the almond board noted the campaign, scheduled to run for nine months, follows the board's previous work with so-called influencers in and outside the United States in the fields of culinary arts, lifestyle and exercise.
"ABC is using every penny we have and every creative idea that we have to drive demand as hard as we can," Waycott said, adding that farming costs are up substantially at the same time demand has softened.
"We're really trying to get things right in here and get the industry where (it) needs to be in terms of profitability," he said.
