California almonds were not top-of-mind snacks and ingredients for Chinese consumers and the consumption was focused on seasonal use.  But Almond Board of California does not have large advertising budget to promote the category. Also, it is facing a big challenge that people confuse almonds with apricot kernels, as both nuts have the same Chinese name.  H&K was appointed to develop overall communications plan to address these issues and raising awareness of almonds as a category to drive consumer demand

H&K designed a communications strategy to establish a suitable positioning for almonds and address these issues via multi-tiered communications platforms to reach key opinion leaders, media and target consumers to drive preference for almonds.

Over one-year program, almonds were no.1 in terms of share of voice in the media with impressive coverage reaching out to millions of target audience.   Annual media audit disclosed that media was able to differentiate almonds from apricot kernels and perceived almonds as a healthy nut. Almonds export to China experienced more than 90% growth in 2006-2007 crop year.