Blue Diamond names Spark Foundry media AOR

Blue Diamond Growers has hired Spark Foundry as its media agency of record across the Blue Diamond portfolio. Starting in June, the Publicis Groupe agency will support paid media efforts for the company’s snack almonds, Almond Breeze almond milk, Nut Thins and Almond Flour brands, including mass media, digital media and retail media. Ad Age Agency Report 2023 Revenue, listings and analysis for agencies and agency companies Read more here The brand had previously worked with Harmelin Media since 2011, but Spark Foundry’s commitment to audience-based media is what Blue Diamond needs to move media further forward in its overall business strategy, according to Jason Merideth, who took over as VP of global marketing at Blue Diamond Growers in October. More news: Vans hires OMD as global media agency “It was a great relationship with Harmelin over the last 12 years, and they really helped drive Blue Diamond through a critical phase in our growth,” Merideth said. “In looking at the need for us to take our next level of growth, we realized we would need enhanced capabilities in the journey to do that on the media side.” The decision was made after a pitch led by Select Resources International. Harmelin could not be immediately reached for comment. Blue Diamond Growers spent $43.3 million on U.S. measured-media in 2022, according to Vivvix, including paid social data from Pathmatics. The company's retail sales exceeded $1.2 billion in the last year. While Blue Diamond's almond milk and almond snacks are No. 1 in market share, there’s room to grow, said Merideth. In an effort to expand market share and household penetration, Blue Diamond is moving away from a more manual method of gathering audience insights, opting for Spark Foundry’s ability to digitally target audiences and tie them back to sales in a privacy-compliant way. Merideth hopes having a more agile media strategy using audience and sales data will keep the company on the front curve of media trends and landscape shifts. Currently, Blue Diamond is focused heavily in traditional media. With Spark Foundry’s help, it aims to move to a broad range of video formats and shift funds easily to target consumers across all path-to-purchase touchpoints. “Historically, Blue Diamond has been very top-of-the-funnel heavy,” he said. “Now as we get that whole path-to-purchase visibility of those media expenditures in one place, and those more sophisticated tools let us dynamically shift funds across the touchpoints in real time, it will be a big asset to us.” The media agency change comes almost a year after Blue Diamond moved its creative business to McKinney, after three years with TBWA\Chiat\Day LA. Sign up for Ad Age newsletters From influencer marketing to agencies, get the latest news and analysis delivered to your inbox Click here

Blue Diamond names Spark Foundry as its media agency as it aims to use data targeting to boost sales

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