Avocados have become a year-round staple for many consumers, but the top consumption holidays of the year are still very important merchandising opportunities.

In 2014, the marketing promotions surrounding Fourth of July resulted in the United States consuming 109 million pounds of avocados during that holiday period. At the time that became the greatest avocado-consumption event for U.S. consumers ever recorded. Promotions surrounding this year’s Super Bowl, which was played Feb. 1,The California Avocado Commission is gearing up for that Fourth of July promotional period with display materials and promotional ideas. saw consumption of 122 million pounds, creating a new record. No doubt handlers of avocados will try to once again top that record for Fourth of July 2015, which falls right in the middle of the California avocado season. To put those numbers in perspective, that means those largely weekend events are seeing as many avocados consumed nationwide in a few days as were consumed in eight to 10 weeks just 20 years ago.

The California Avocado Commission is gearing up for that Fourth of July promotional period with display materials and promotional ideas. The holiday coincides well with the commission’s strategy of the last several years to emphasize consumption events and new usage ideas to consumers. CAC touts those party-inducing events because avocados have proven to be a great accompaniment to any gathering as guacamole or for snacks or even for grilling.

Because of the mild 2014-15 winter that California avocado growers experienced this year, the fruit has sized earlier and some of the state’s growers were able to capitalize on the promotions surrounding the Super Bowl and provide retailers with fruit in January. That isn’t always the case. For example, in 2014 the crop was basically marketed from March through September. But this year, marketing has been moved up about a month with most of the California fruit expected to be sold during the February through August time frame, though there were some sales in January as previously mentioned. Most of those sales were to several California retailers that featured California avocados in their “big game” advertising and promotional displays.

CAC sponsored sales and display contests for the late January and early February time period, and provided extra incentives to motivate in-store personnel to get behind the sale and promotion of California avocados. In Northern California, Mollie Stone’s, a small, upscale chain of nine stores, conducted a California avocado display contest. The chain did promote the fact that they were the first retailer in the area to carry California avocados.

Gelson’s Markets, a similar type of retailer with 12 stores in the Los Angeles market, also carried California avocados for its promotions leading up to Super Bowl weekend. The chain developed a sales contest, with supporting ads and displays, and reported excellent sales increases. Several other regional chains also carried California fruit during that time period and promoted it as such.

CAC supported the early-season promotions with California avocado display bins and signage, and sponsored the prizes for the account contests. The commission also utilized a tightly targeted social media campaigns with geo-fencing to promote these promotions to local consumers. For example, using geo-fencing, CAC identified consumers within a seven-mile radius of Mollie Stone’s locations and targeted them with California avocado advertisements.

In some ways, the late January promotion was a dry run for CAC’s planned efforts during its marketing period. There are several upcoming holiday consumption events when featuring California avocados makes perfect sense, including, Easter, Cinco de Mayo, Mother’s Day, Memorial Day, Father’s Day and the aforementioned Fourth of July. Some years the end of the summer Labor Day Weekend also is cause for celebration and the utilization of California avocados. This year it remains to be seen just how many California avocados will be left to market at the end of summer. If consumers eat them up as the current trend indicates, there will be few left… though still plenty of avocados from other points of origin to fuel a Labor Day Weekend promotion.