Blue Diamond Growers apparently went nuts for TBWA/Chiat/Day LA's pitch, choosing it to lead creative duties after a review.
The appointment entails creative work across the California agricultural cooperative and marketing organization's product portfolio, which includes almonds, almond milk and nut-based crackers, the agency says. Blue Diamond couldn't be immediately reached for comment. The review was run by Select Resources International.
The marketer had worked recently with Publicis Groupe shop Riney, which also could not be immediately reached for comment.
Erin Riley, president of Omnicom-owned TBWA/Chiat/Day LA, says the agency often focuses on locating a brand's place within the culture. And in the case of almonds, she says, the products are already part of the cultural conversation.
"There's a lot of talk around the wellness benefits, the superfood benefits, the beauty benefits," she says. "Part of our role will be to make sure that Blue Diamond as a brand is getting credit [and in] making sure that people are talking about Blue Diamond almonds, not just almonds generally."
Riley says the agency plans to work with the brand to "innovate and expand the brand," citing what she sees as high growth potential. She adds that the marketer said it admired TBWA's integrated approach and tools like its in-house production studio and cultural insights studio.
Blue Diamond works with Harmelin Media out of Philadelphia for media buying and planning duties.
In late December, Blue Diamond Growers won the appeal of a ruling that threw out a proposed class suit claiming Blue Diamond's almond milk beverages were mislabeled, Bloomberg Law reported. The plaintiff alleged the product should be labeled as "imitation milk" because "they substitute for and resemble dairy milk but are nutritionally inferior to it."
The court of appeals said the plaintiff "does not plausibly allege that a reasonable consumer would be deceived into believing that Blue Diamond's almond milk products are nutritionally equivalent to dairy milk based on their package labels and advertising."
But changes might be coming for products like almond milk: The Food and Drug Administration said in September it was seeking information about the way consumers use dairy substitutes, which could be a first step in changing how those products are labeled, reported CNBC. Meanwhile, the Milk Processor Education Program, or MilkPEP, keeps promoting what it says are the benefits of dairy milk, including on sites such as Milk Life.
Blue Diamond Growers spent an estimated $70 million in measured media in the U.S. in 2017 , according to Kantar Media.
Contributing: Jessica Wohl
