The Hass Avocado Board said it was honored to receive PRWeek’s 2016 Multicultural Campaign of the Year Award, the communications industry’s highest accolade for programs aimed at multicultural audiences. After a rigorous judging process, a panel of expert judges gave its highest praise to HAB’s strategic integration of the health benefits of good fats, such as fresh avocados, with bilingual education on type 2 diabetes prevention. The campaign with the American Diabetes Association was promoted through HAB’s English and Spanish science-based education platforms Love One Today and Saborea Uno Hoy and managed by MSLGROUP, HAB’s public relations agency for Hispanic outreach.
 
The Multicultural Campaign of Year Award recognizes effectiveness in displaying an in-depth understanding of a multicultural group and ability to tailor outreach to raise awareness, showcase creativity and achieve results. Hispanics are disproportionately impacted by diabetes and nearly twice as likely as non-Hispanics to get the disease. Leveraging the pipeline of proprietary nutrition research supported by HAB, the bilingual campaign promoted how eating fresh avocados can be part of a healthy diet, one of the most important ways to reduce risk factors for type 2 diabetes. The collaboration, which included sharing nutrition tips and recipes, proved to be a powerful forum for putting HAB’s nutrition findings into fresh context for target audiences and successfully drove demand for avocados.
 
HAB’s 2016 win at the PRWeek Awards represents back-to-back national recognition for producing the best of the best communications programs in the country. In 2015 HAB was honored to be named a Product Brand Development Campaign of the Year finalist for the launch of the Love One Today campaign.
 
“We’re excited by this continued recognition by the PRWeek Awards,” Gina Widjaja, director of marketing and communications for the Hass Avocado Board, said in a press release. “Increasing awareness of the benefits of eating avocados in regards to diabetes prevention is a key research focus for the industry. Teaming up with American Diabetes Association has been a creative and effective way to elevate nutrition findings and help grow the category.”
 
“This campaign found the right message and achieved clear business results,” noted one PRWeek judge.
 
Indeed, total units/volume of avocados sold during the launch month were up nearly 27 percent year on year. Further, the program generated 76 million consumer impressions within its first two months (six times the goal) and more than half of visitors to the campaign landing page downloaded recipes and other educational materials, indicating that the content was relevant and resonating. HAB is credited for helping grow the number of Hispanics taking the association’s risk assessment test by 55 percent during the launch month, further proving Hispanics took in the message and wanted to learn more.