NEW YORK Diamond Foods bids farewell to the offbeat word games and sight gags of its past campaigns and welcomes suave Las Vegas singer Robert Goulet in an upcoming push for Emerald Nuts that includes a return engagement on the Super Bowl.
“The two previous two Super Bowl commercials were introductions [designed to help consumers] associate Emerald with snack nuts. The new campaign is trying to build some new dimension and personality of the brand,” said Michael Mendes, president and CEO.
The Super Bowl appearance spot will be part of a larger push by the company that will begin in the weeks before the big game with co-branded retail promotions with Anheuser-Busch’s Budweiser.
As for what the commercial, crafted by San Francisco’s Goodby, Silverstein + Partners, will look like, Mendes said, “We’ll be highlighting how people are lacking energy in the late afternoon and position Emeralds as the solution. Robert helps facilitate this.”
This year’s spot will run in the third quarter, an upgrade over last year’s, which ran in the fourth.
Thirty-second Super Bowl slots have cost upwards of $2 million in each of the past two years. For Diamond, that represents roughly one-third of its annual media outlay.
“Not only do we want people to see the brand and expand its dimension, but we’d like people to be snacking on the brand while they are watching,” said Mendes.
The company also plans to run a national print ad on Jan. 14 and will attempt to generate some viral buzz with online executions.
This is familiar territory for Diamond because it’s 2005 Super Bowl spot highlighted angryleprechaun.com, a site containing the ranting of an irate elf who had been left out of the commercial.
Commercial time on Super Bowl XLI is more than 80 percent sold out [Adweek Online, Dec. 15]. The Super Bowl is slated for Feb. 4 on CBS.
Other game advertisers include A-B, CareerBuilder.com, Federal Express, Friito-Lay, General Motors, GoDaddy.com and PepsiCo.
Diamond Trades Rough for Suave in Super Bowl
