IOC Launches ‘Add Some Life’ Olive Oil Campaign in New York
The International Olive Council launched “Add Some Life”, its promotion campaign for olive oil and table olives in North America, at a press event at Lincoln Center in New York on Monday 12 September, in the middle of Fashion Week. The 18-month campaign has a budget of €1.2 million (about $1.7 million) and is run by the agency Exponent PR. Here is what was launched, what the IOC hopes it will do, and why I would temper the excitement.
What was launched
According to the IOC, some twenty food and lifestyle journalists from print, online and broadcast media came to hear the Council’s executive director, Jean-Louis Barjol, outline the campaign. He borrowed the language of the week, describing a whole range of “collections” of olives and olive oils waiting to be discovered, with flavors and health benefits to match. Exponent unveiled a campaign website, addsomelife.org, launched that morning alongside a Facebook page, a Twitter feed and a sweepstakes for consumers.
The food came from the Miami restaurateur Michael Schwartz, a 2010 James Beard Award winner who will be the campaign’s ambassador, and the drinks from mixologist Ryan Goodspeed, who made olive-inspired cocktails. The journalists were then invited on to designer Betsey Johnson’s runway show. The IOC says it will invite industry representatives at the next meeting of its advisory committee to look for ways that companies and associations can work alongside the campaign.
What the IOC wants from it
The contract was awarded in June to the Minneapolis advertising agency Colle + McVoy and its public relations partner Exponent PR, after six firms bid. The IOC’s tender set out what it wanted, and it is more revealing than the launch party:
- Show that olive oil and table olives are healthy and can be used raw or cooked with many kinds of food, not just Mediterranean dishes.
- Educate consumers on value, with a message “aimed at justifying the price of the product”.
- Work mainly at retail level, where the IOC’s research found buying decisions easiest to influence.
- In the short to medium term, get existing consumers to buy more; in the longer term, win new ones.
| Campaign at a glance | Detail |
|---|---|
| Name | Add Some Life |
| Markets | United States and Canada |
| Budget | €1.2 million (about $1.7 million) |
| Length | 18 months, 2011 to 2012 |
| Agency | Exponent PR with Colle + McVoy |
| Ambassador | Chef Michael Schwartz |
Barjol has called the United States a top priority and the current budget “a beginning”. Olive Oil Times, which was there, described the event as thinly attended and noted that this is the IOC’s first promotional push in the American market in more than ten years.
Why I would temper the excitement
Generic promotion is not new for the IOC. It has run campaigns in other markets before, including India, where the pitch was similar: olive oil is healthy, versatile and worth what it costs. The hard part is the last clause. This spring, UC Davis published its second report finding that most samples of the top-selling imported extra virgin brands it bought in California failed international sensory standards. A campaign built to justify the price of olive oil lands in a market where a well-publicized study has just questioned whether much of the extra virgin on the shelf deserves that price.
None of that is the agency’s fault, and more Americans cooking with olive oil is good news for every producer, large or small. But awareness is not the problem in North America. Trust is. A shopper persuaded by a cocktail at Lincoln Center who then buys a stale bottle at the supermarket learns the wrong lesson, and no sweepstakes will win them back.
Generic campaigns are paid for by producing countries and are, by design, brand-blind: they sell “olive oil”, not any particular bottle. In my experience the extra demand flows to whatever is cheapest and most visible on the shelf, so if the campaign works, I expect the first beneficiaries to be the big blended brands, not the small producers whose oil actually tastes like the one in the chef’s demonstration. The best way to get what the campaign promises is still to taste before you trust.
Sources
- International Olive Council: New York rendezvous for IOC Executive Director to attend launch of North American promotion campaign, September 2011 (archived copy)
- Olive Oil Times: Olive Oil Campaign Gets a Life in New York, 14 September 2011 (archived copy)
- Olive Oil Times: Council Chooses Exponent PR to Promote Olive Oil in North America, 22 June 2011 (archived copy)