Nut brand Orchard Valley Harvest says no to ‘No Nut November’

“No Nut November” isn’t a tradition you’d expect many brands to engage with. But nut maker Orchard Valley Harvest is going for it, so to speak, with a campaign from Terri & Sandy encouraging young men to gratify themselves to their heart’s content this month—with its nut and trail-mix snacks, that is. The campaign is anchored by the 30-second spot below, in which two young dudes on a couch discuss the general lack of things to do during No Nut November. But the brand’s “OVH” logo, which jumps off a pack of nuts sitting on the coffee table, has some ideas. John Goetter, VP of marketing at John B. Sanfilippo & Son, Inc., parent company of Orchard Valley Harvest, told Ad Age that the nut category in general has trouble keeping millennials and Gen Z engaged—and this kind of work is meant to counteract that. “We don’t take ourselves too seriously,” he said. “We’ve tried to infuse fun and excitement into our brand to combat that—from our package design, to flavors, to our campaigns.” When Terri & Sandy approached the brand with the No Nut November idea, he added, “we thought it was brilliant. It was so clever and did a wonderful job of playing into the joke without being over-the-top and offensive. After some hilarious and awkward meetings to explain what No Nut November was to some key executives, everyone was on board with the idea.” The tone of the spot was key, said Chris Cannon, creative director at Terri & Sandy. “We knew we would be walking a fine line,” Cannon said. “It was really easy to go too far, and at times during the ideation process, we definitely did. There were a ton of jokes left on the cutting room floor that I would feel weird about showing to my mom. But as long as we kept telling ourselves Ovie [OVH] was only talking about nuts, the crunchy edible kind, we knew we would wind up in a good place.” The campaign, part of a rebrand that began earlier this year, also includes paid ads on X and Grindr, as well as organic placement on the No Nut November subreddit. Also, for each customer who goes to SayNoToNoNutNovember.com and pledges a commitment to November nutting, Orchard Valley Harvest will donate $1 to Conscious Alliance to fight food insecurity. (There’s also a contest component where consumers have a chance to get reimbursed for their nut purchases through Nov. 30.) “We wanted to show up in places where the ‘No Nut November’ conversation was happening naturally,” Goetter said. “Reddit and Grindr had some robust activity around the subject. That gave us confidence that we would have a good shot at breaking through with an audience that was already in on the joke.” This campaign is obviously targeting young men, but the brand broadly target women and men equally, Goetter added.

Nut brand Orchard Valley Harvest says no to ‘No Nut November’

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