NMB honored with Produce Business Marketing Excellence Award

The National Mango Board’s (NMB) Cooking with Mangos Foodservice Program was honored with the Produce Business’ Marketing Excellence Award. This is the seventh year in a row the NMB’s marketing achievements are recognized by the Produce Business. The award recognizes innovative produce companies who are revolutionizing the way the produce industry connects its products to the consumers.

The Cooking with Mangos foodservice initiative focuses on capturing consumers’ attention at the restaurant-level, where people are more inclined to try mangos, some for the first time. For this reason, the NMB dedicates the Foodservice program to educate chefs, students and instructors on handling and cooking with fresh mango. The NMB also partners with foodservice chains to increase fresh mango menu items through strong promotions. The efforts by the NMB received outstanding success with nearly 5,000 foodservice outlets impacted from January through June of 2015. These outlets executed a total of seven promotions, helping to increase mango usage volume by 785 percent compared to 2014 among NMB funded promotion participants.

The program also supports editorial outreach to place mangos in prominent publications available to chefs and foodservice operators – boosting educational opportunities and awareness amongst this essential audience. Editorial efforts for foodservice PR have garnered approximately seven million impressions so far in 2015; 2014 garnered nearly nine million media impressions.

“We are honored to be presented with such a prestigious award by Produce Business,” stated Rachel Muñoz, Marketing Director for the NMB. “The purpose of this initiative was to inspire chefs and foodservice operators to add fresh mango items on their menus; which is key to increasing consumer awareness and mango consumption.”

Visit www.mango.org/foodservice to access resources for foodservice operators and chefs, including information about handling, ripening, cutting, yield and usage ideas. Recipes are available at www.mango.org/recipes.