Voice of the Grower Campaign Continues to Drive Strong Results
The Voice of the Grower campaign continues to deliver strong results across consumer and retail media. The California Avocado Commission’s new Instacart retail media program, which allows consumers to add California avocados to their Instacart basket, is off to a strong start, generating a 6.67x return on ad spend, while driving more than $151,000 in attributed sales. In addition, streaming TV has generated more than 5 million completed video views, an impressive 99% completion rate through mid-June. Social media also has generated 2.9 million engagements (+115% year over year) to-date and 9.5 million video views (+85% year over year).
Custom video creative served across a variety of contextually relevant websites, bringing the story of growers, groves and delicious recipes to consumers.
Reaching shoppers in the Instacart app with fresh California avocados imagery and "Now In Season” messaging at the point of purchase.
Walmart Stores Seek to Enhance Digital Penetration with California Avocados
The Commission marketing team developed a rotating set of creative imagery in partnership with Walmart for online advertisements targeting shoppers “most likely to buy” avocados. By utilizing this strategy, CAC has aligned its marketing efforts with a key customer’s goals and objectives and supported its own.
The early results are impressive, returning more than $24.00 in sales for each $1.00 invested (on the upper end of Walmart’s benchmarks). California avocado growers reap the rewards here with increased sales due to the extra sales volume generated online. In 2025, online sales contributed nearly 75% of total grocery dollar growth, while in-store sales remained relatively stable.
Robust Retail Campaigns for California Avocado Month
California Avocado Month was particularly active this year with several robust retail campaigns, including:
- Albertsons/Vons/Pavilions shared a four-week social media series promoting California Avocado Month
- A three-week retail co-promotion with Avocado Green that included a Gelson’s tie-in
- Lunds & Byerly’s in Minneapolis dedicated an issue of their Good Taste newsletter (circulation 500,000) to a celebration of California Avocado Month
- Mollie Stones shared a four-prong digital media campaign (Facebook, Instagram, blog and newsletter)
Fourth of July Volume Rockets Past 2025
California Hass avocado volume for the two weeks ending July 5 was nearly 40% higher than in 2025, hitting more than 17 million pounds for the supply week ending June 28 alone. To encourage consumer pull-through during the holiday period, the Commission sponsored retail programs such as this display contest with Four Seasons. The program included a bonus grand prize for California avocado displays with a patriotic theme.
Creating Generation Z California Avocado Fans in the Pacific Northwest
This California Avocado Month, the foodservice team conducted training sessions with the culinary teams at Oregon State University and the corporate campus of Nike, run by Aramark’s Foodworks division. By teaching the chefs and cooks about seasonality and the California difference, these programs now have the inspiration and the tools to leverage the California avocados they purchase each year. At an added pop-up activation serving and selling a Puerto Rican-inspired “Jibarito” bowl to the Nike “athletes” (as employees are called), CAC left a delicious mark on the iconic campus.
