The National Mango Board’s (NMB) marketing soccer campaigns and partnerships were honored with the Produce Business’ Marketing Excellence Award. The award recognizes innovative produce companies who are revolutionizing the way the produce industry connects its products to consumers. This marks the eighth year in a row the NMB’s marketing achievements are recognized by the Produce Business.
The NMB aimed to reach soccer fans through a strategic combination of sampling events, social media, and a spokesperson. Through these approaches, the NMB strengthened consumer education to break some of the main barriers of mango purchase – awareness, selection, cutting, and usage. The NMB partnered with the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) to feature mangos as the “Official Superfruit of the NWSL,” and US Youth Soccer with mangos as an “Official Snack of US Youth Soccer.” In addition, the NMB teamed up with NWSL’s Julie Johnston to inspire soccer fans to use this delicious and healthy fruit. Julie is a star NWSL player and defender for the U.S. Women’s National Team. She was named NWSL’s rookie of the year in 2014 and was nominated for the Adidas Golden Ball at the FIFA Women’s World Cup Canada 2015.
The NMB has executed 25 combined sampling events at NWSL and US Youth Soccer matches during 2015 and 2016, reaching over 30,000 fans. Stadium signage and soccer media exposure impressions also reached over 180 million spectators. Social media channels played an important role in engaging followers garnering over 7.55 million impressions of soccer related posts. Julie showcased how she uses mangos to train, snack, and prepare for her matches during a Satellite Media Tour day in New York City. This media day resulted in an estimated 121 million impressions across 24 media outlets. Overall, the ongoing campaign is expected to yield strong results for 2016 as well.
“The purpose of the campaigns and partnerships was to unite one of the most popular fruits in the world with the most popular sport in the world. By focusing on direct to consumer tactics, we aimed to increase mango awareness and consumption with soccer fans nationwide,” stated Rachel Muñoz, Director of Marketing at the NMB. “The collaboration with the soccer leagues and Julie Johnston, along with creative social media content, fun and educational sampling events, and ongoing media coverage has helped the success of this program.”
For more information, please visit mango.org.