Celebrity Ambassadors Put California
Almonds in the Spotlight

As part of the Almond Board of California’s (ABC) goal to continue to develop growing international markets, ABC has partnered with two popular movie actresses in China and India. These almond ambassadors effectively represent the female target consumer audience in their respective markets. This past fall, these women have been hard at work promoting California Almonds with various media interviews, speeches, photo shoots and, for Indian Ambassador Karisma Kapoor, filming the first-ever Almond Board local TV commercials.

Gao YuanYuan speaks to the media during an ABC press conference in September to welcome the new almond harvest.

For the ABC India program, the repetitive and multifaceted media crusade featuring Kapoor led up to one of the peak festivals, Diwali, when almonds are traditionally given as gifts, and will continue through January, as the winter months are the typical consumption period in India. The goal is to remind mothers of the tradition of eating almonds and to provide new ideas that stress almonds’ relevance for today. Three different TV spots were created to air on a rotating basis for six weeks with messages about gifting almonds for health. Print advertisements in key newspapers and magazines, as pictured below, were also a first for the ABC India program.

A series of print advertisements in India feature Karisma Kapoor.

In China, celebrity ambassador Gao YuanYuan also promoted the health benefits of snacking on almonds throughout the day and sharing them with friends and family, during a media event in September. The series of Gao YuanYuan print and TV features, as well as retail advertising, are rolling out now to build momentum toward the most crucial buying period of Chinese New Year, the beginning of February. This year’s in-store campaign is unprecedented in scope with the ambitious goal of reaching 10,000 stores with large-format advertisements such as pillar displays, shelf banners and posters.