Rob Gronkamole highlights AFM fall/winter avocado promos

In what is clearly a marketing coup, Avocados From Mexico will be featuring the very popular sports celebrity Rob Gronkowski in its promotion aligned with the Feb. 9, 2025 Super Bowl.

Since his retirement from the National Football League a few years ago, the affable former all-pro tight end has become a great pitchman for various products, including USAA insurance. He is also a football analyst for FOX TV with a starring role every Sunday morning.

For AFM, he will be featured throughout January on AFM retail bins, packaging and promotions touting his own “Gronkamole” recipe, which is described as a blue cheese/Buffalo flavor concoction. The promotion will be titled “Always a Good Bowl.”

AFM Senior Vice Present Stephanie Bazan previewed the promotional group’s fall/winter promotional programs to several trade journalists prior to the public release of the Gronkowski news at the International Fresh Produce Association’s October event, The Global Produce & Floral Show. (The news was embargoes until after the show.)

She said the promotion group expects the Gronkowski connection to “bring excitement to AFM’s retail partners” and presumably increase in-store promotions with the use of the collateral material.

Bazan’s presentation also included two other key promotional campaigns that AFM is conducting this fall, as well as an overview of the avocado category, focusing specifically on Mexico’s production and participation in the U.S. market.

Already under way during this early October briefing was AFM’s participation in the national Susan G. Komen for the Cure campaign. This is the fourth year that AFM has participated in this breast cancer awareness effort. This year it has donated $100,000 to the foundation and will be featuring cancer awareness messaging on its bins and consumer bags in the pink hue that is emblematic of the campaign. Bazan noted that AFM embraces purpose-driven causes and has titled its promotion “Super Good Cause” with that tag line appearing on its promotional materials and packaging.

The marketing group is once again also using college football to kick-off its major fall promotion, which is tied directly to pigskin action. Beginning in late October and continuing through the Super Bowl, AFM will be promoting guacamole as a perfect accompaniment to watching football. Bazan revealed that between college football and the National Football League there are 1,900 television viewing opportunities, which means 1,900 opportunities to feature avocados as part of one’s game day spread.

This year, college football has expanded its playoff lineup which Bazan said offers “more games, more viewers and more opportunities to promote avocados and guacamole.” AFM will feature in-store materials, such as bins and packaging, but it will also be a featured sponsor on pre-game and half-time telecasts of important college games on both ESPN and the Southeastern Conference Network during the runup to the December/January college playoffs to crown the national champion.

During the presentation, Bazan reported that the avocado category continues to do extremely well at retail, maintaining its upward growth curve. She said that since 2010, U.S. per capita consumption of avocados has risen 130 percent from 3.8 pounds to almost nine pounds per person. The AFM representative said Mexico is the driving force behind that increase as it has increased its shipments by 55 percent in the past decade. She added that Mexico has an 84 percent share of market on an annualized basis. In the near future, Bazan expects both U.S. consumption and volume from Mexico to continue to climb.

While bagged avocados continue to show year over year gains of total volume, Bazan said “bulk is still king” with a 77 percent market share. As such, AFM does focus on bulk but she said they also support the growth of bagged avocados through various programs and the development of theme-based bag graphics for the promotions.

Regarding merchandising efforts, Bazan said the use of display bins by retailers delivers a healthy lift in sales. An AFM study showed that an unbranded bin display resulted in a 12 percent lift in sales, while a bin display touting Avocados From Mexico with its graphics resulted in a 25 percent gain in sales.

She also noted that shoppers with an avocado in their basket spend significantly more per trip than a shopper that does not include the popular fruit in that trip’s purchases. “Avocados will drive the basket,” she said.

Another merchandising strategy that AFM is pushing is the use of incremental avocado displays in the other fresh food departments of the store. A study showed that an avocado display in meat, deli or bakery results in more avocado sales and also a gain in the sales of the non-produce products in those other fresh sections.

Bazan also reported that produce remains the top driver in the grocery stores, with avocados being a top performer in that department. Produce is the only store department to have registered growth in the past year, she said. Avocados rank eighth in the produce department for dollar sales and third in dollar growth, according to scan data over the past 52 weeks (October 2023-September 2024).