Watch the video above or read below.

Matthew Burns:
Stephen Semple, I kept you in the dark. And I kept you in the dark because I did something that you normally do over at the Empire Builders Podcast, which is I did my research on the effectiveness of an ad campaign over time, and I kept you in the dark. I didn’t want you to know anything. So I’m going to play an ad for you, but first I want to see if you think this is Empire Builders worthy. Okay? So in 2014 – 2015, this company sold about $1.7 billion worth of product into the United States. So this is an imported product, and that’s the year they started their campaign that I remember.

Stephen Semple:
So, they started the campaign, that’s their sales. Okay, you got it.

Matthew Burns:
In 2020 – 2021, the approximate revenue generated by sales of this product in the United States was $11.2 billion.

Stephen Semple:
So almost a 10 times or like eight times or nine times or something like that.

Matthew Burns:
Yeah, absolutely.

Stephen Semple:
That’s awesome.

Matthew Burns:
Substantial growth. And all because they started talking about themselves. It’s an interesting product they could have gone. Honestly, I’m surprised they went the direction they did. I’m really happy they went the direction they did. And I’ve got more data and I’m geeking out a little bit, but I want to play the ad so people know what we’re talking about. So let’s play this.

Speaker 1: Good afternoon and welcome.
Speaker 2: What?
Speaker 1: I say good afternoon and welcome.
Speaker 3: Can we lose the masks?
Speaker 2: Just take ’em off.
Speaker 1: How can we be a secret? How can we be a secret society if we can’t keep all of our secrets?
Speaker 4:Do they know we fake the moon landing?
Speaker 1: No, not yet.
Speaker 5: Or that there are only 49 shades of gray.
Speaker 1: They’re suspicious, but that’s not what I’m talking about.
Speaker 6: What about Bigfoot?
Speaker 1: Bigfoot’s not real and everyone knows that.
Speaker: Did they figure out we deflated the football?
Speaker 1: No. We found a fall guy for that one.
Speaker 6: Bigfoot’s definitely real.
Speaker 1: Nope.
Speaker 6: We have to agree to disagree.
Speaker 5: What about area 51? Do they know about that?
Speaker 1: No.
Speaker 4: How about area 52 t0 54?
Speaker 1: Stop saying areas. No areas plus a number.
Speaker 6: Literally hundreds of photos of Bigfoot.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I saw him once. Wait, wait, Bigfoot, I’m getting it wrong. Paul Bunion?
Speaker 1: Point is, someone is leaking this stuff.
Speaker 8: Why are you looking at me?
Speaker 1: I’m not looking at you, Anne.
Speaker 6: I’ve seen his footprint on –
Speaker 1: Scott! What they do know is that avocados from Mexico have good fat.
Speaker 4: So they know they’re healthy,
Speaker 1: They know everything. Kyle, are you streaming this?
Speaker 4: Is that not cool?
Speaker 1: No, it’s not cool. That’s what secret means. It’s a secret society.
Speaker 4: Oh wow. Secret. Hey, I got a like!
Speaker 5: You got a like? That was me.
Speaker 4: I like you too.
Speaker 3: At least they don’t know about subliminal advertising.
Speaker 6: That’s not even a thing. Right?
*Jingle* Avocados from Mexico!

Matthew Burns:
What are you doing? I’m live streaming. Oh, look, I got a like, it’s a secret society. So the campaign isn’t about secret societies. That’s a little bit of a foreshadow for the future. But what I really liked that they did in this campaign was they leaned into shared experience. So water cooler talk, let’s call it. So things that everybody can have a contributing part of the conversation and that we know most people have had inside of their conversation with somebody at one point or another. Does that make sense?

Stephen Semple:
A question for you. So that ad, that was the first ad that ran?

Matthew Burns:
It wasn’t. It was the first ad that I saw. So I wanted to start there. The very first ad was titled the First Draft. And I didn’t earmark it. It was another one that really hit me kind of solidly. The first one was called the First Draft, and it was about God doing the draft pick for what country gets what thing, which actually is pretty funny. I’ll put a link to it. It was pretty funny. But these two were kind of my favorites. But again, still the same idea of using almost all their campaign. Actually all their campaign is these kind of snippets of human experience.

Stephen Semple:
Right? Okay, cool.

Matthew Burns:
So, what did you think? Now you hadn’t seen the ad. What did you think of the ad? I need your reaction.

Stephen Semple:
So especially if it was an early ad, because if you think about what they were doing, what a billion in export sales to the United States, which means it did not have big market penetration. So to a degree, the other thing that’s kind of hidden in that is that a whole idea of avocados. Look, I bet a lot of people didn’t even realize guacamole was made with avocados – was a bit secret. No, but if you think about it, if something’s a niche product, it’s a little bit of a secret. You may know somebody who’s had it, you may never have had it yourself, right? So I find that that was almost embedded in it as well. And yeah, it was hilarious. It was a great ad.

Matthew Burns:
They did a lot of things that we’ve talked about on this channel that I really like. They used mystery. They literally only say avocados from Mexico once at the very end.

Stephen Semple:
At the very end. Advertisers have a hard time using mystery. They really, really do because it’s like, well, what do you mean I’m not going to mention the product three times? What do you mean I’m not going to put the logo up? What do you mean I’m not going to lead with it? But that’s also what draws you in because you don’t know – your brain can’t help but go, what the hell are they talking about? I need to pay attention.

Matthew Burns:
Well, that’s exactly it. And so I love the fact that they got into this weird scenario. We talk about characters all the time, and building good character diamonds, and they had these kind of really interesting characters around the circle. I love the girl. Why are you looking at me? Talking about if there’s a leak, which she’s the leak. They bought the time and attention of a busy public during a Super Bowl where there’s lots of really interesting and creating advertising happening usually except for talked about 2025 sucked.

But they did a really good job of keeping the entertainment and then they just said, here’s the thing. And so this is an awareness campaign. All this is to do is, hey guys, if you’re going to buy avocados, buy them from Mexico. So if you’re in the store, you turn it around, look at the little label. They didn’t have to say any of that. They’re just like Hey, we are interesting. Go buy our fruit.

Stephen Semple:
There’s another element in this, okay, now I’m aware of a product, but it does make me want to purchase it, right? What’s interesting is what they highlighted in terms of the use of avocado, which would’ve been in the early days, the primary use of avocado was for guacamole, which is basically dip, right? They basically said “Avocado is fun”, but they never said it’s fun. They just made it feel fun.

Matthew Burns:
Perfect. I love it. Absolutely.

Stephen Semple:
And they tied that in the end with everybody all around the dip, digging in. Not only was it awareness, but we anchored fun. So if I’m now going through the grocery store and I’m thinking about what am I going to do that’s going to be fun with the gang that’s coming over this weekend to the pool party? You know what? I’m going to make some guacamole.

Matthew Burns:
Avocados are fun. Right? I like that too. The other thing is that when you think about things being the context of the ad too, the context of this ad is it’s during the football game, all these campaigns. So they went from 2020, sorry, 2014 to 2020 straight. They missed 2021 and then they did 2022 in the Super Bowl. So that was the length of the campaign. A couple of the other really cool things they want to know about this is that 95% of all avocados purchased for football are Mexican avocados now in the United States, which is a ridiculous number.

I mean it means all the avocados in the United States are bought from Mexico for football. So they own that genre, which is ridiculous. They started back in 2014, but I think it was 50. Yeah, 50 million pounds. And they’re up like 220 million pounds of avocados are imported. I mean that’s a lot. I mean they’re not heavy, just so you know. They’re not heavy.

Stephen Semple:
They’re very low. And it’s the growth. So they managed to get a growth both in volume and pricing because basically the growth of volume was four times, the sales volume was nine times. So they also managed to move their price point up,

Matthew Burns:
Which is because now they’re the preferred avocado. Right? Huge thing,

Stephen Semple:
Especially in something like a fruit or a vegetable. Yeah, absolutely.

Matthew Burns:
It’s a commodity item, right? I mean, this is pretty standard fair. And the other thing that I thought was really interesting was that by 2021, every American, now, not every American was eating it, but this is the way they gave me the data was eight pounds per American is imported into the United States, eight pounds of avocados per American.

Stephen Semple:
Wow.

Matthew Burns:
I’m like, what a weird stat, but I thought it was kind of neat. We know not everybody’s eating. So there’s some people who are, they’re lifting, they’re holding up the rest, right?

Stephen Semple:
There’s our partner, Mick Torbay, who can’t walk past an avocado.

Matthew Burns:
Oh my God, I think he eats avocado everything. So not just avocado toast.

Stephen Semple:
Really does. He really does.

Matthew Burns:
Hey, what are you eating there, Mick? Oh, I’m eating an avocado steak. It’s just a steak made from avocados. He’s vegetarian. Anyway, that’s the crux of it is that they were not communicating at all. Then they leaned into something awesome and interesting and fun to buy the time and attention during a time when there was a lot of people watching. So they heavily invested.

I mean, this could have been a bust. I mean, we’ve seen some ads that we know are just going to be bust and they spend a lot of money on it, and it paid off in spades. And now Avocados from Mexico, Avocados from Mexico (*jingle*)

Stephen Semple:
So here’s the thing I find just hit me that I find the most interesting about. This is a great example. It’s hard to come up with a brand category that is more commoditized than things like fruit and vegetable, like an avocado. And here’s the thing that’s also interesting. They didn’t make it that it’s Dole avocado. So they didn’t do the traditional brand. They said basically avocados from Mexico is better. And that’s a really weird thing to get people to look for in a grocery store.

So now I’m going through the, how many times do we really look at where the product is from? We usually don’t care. So it is a remarkable thing that they’ve managed to get people to actually look at this commodity, this green pear shaped, I don’t even know whether it’s a fruit or vegetable.

Matthew Burns:
I think it’s a vegetable.

Stephen Semple:
But sit there and say, I’m going to buy this one from Mexico. Just given that it’s from Mexico. It’s better than from California.

Matthew Burns:
Yeah, I think it’s an oily fruit. It’s got a pit.

Stephen Semple:
And you’re asking somebody to buy the foreign product, not the local product.

Matthew Burns:
Well, that’s what I thought was really interesting, especially because I know the sales haven’t dipped. So 2020, even 2023 data, the numbers have stayed higher. I just gave the drastic change. I thought that was the most interesting numbers, but the numbers that still stayed high all the way to 2023. Now here for anybody who on our Canadian listeners, avocados from Mexico in Canada have not done anything different. They go up and down kind of like a commodity.

Stephen Semple:
Yeah, we haven’t seen those ads in Canada.

Matthew Burns:
We don’t see them outside of this. Oh, they might not even have seen it during the Super Bowl. You’re absolutely right. It would’ve been Canadian advertisers. Here’s the stat that I thought was really cool about that. One was 95% of all avocados in Canada are actually from Mexico anyway, so we’re not anywhere near as big as the United States. They’re not getting any more cents from us.

Stephen Semple:
Right, because we also don’t have a local producer. But here’s another interesting avocado fact I’m going to share with you.

Matthew Burns:
Go ahead.

Stephen Semple:
Avocado was not originally called – when it was first being sold. It was not called avocado.

Matthew Burns:
Oh, interesting. Okay. Talk to me.

Stephen Semple:
I can’t remember whether it was alligator or crocodile pear. It’s either Crocodile Pear or alligator pear.

Matthew Burns:
So the first use of it in English, or the first time it was ever –

Stephen Semple:
Like when it was being sold in the United States. It was not called avocado. Now I don’t even know whether avocado’s the native, but they changed. Then they basically changed the name of it.

Matthew Burns:
Well, they started marketing under one name, changed it. Nobody was picking it up.

Stephen Semple:
Yeah,  and this was a long time ago, but yeah.

Matthew Burns:
Well, you are old and full of all sorts of useless data. Interesting though. Useless, but interesting data. Okay, so I wanted to leave you with one more. I want your reaction.

Stephen Semple:
It’s not the first time the avocado industry got together and said we had to do some marketing.

Matthew Burns:
The secret society had to get back together. We’re not getting the sales. What’s going on? I’m going to play with this last ad for you so we can move on to the next one. This was a lot of fun. Thank you for indulging me in doing something a little bit weird. Watch this ad, and I do want your reaction on this one. So watch it.

Speaker 1: Behold the bounty of Earth, this is the cube of Rubik. This simple puzzle was actually considered unsolvable by the humans.
Speaker 2: Did they not have brains?
Speaker 1: Simple ones. Now, this was apparently a 21st century torture device.
Speaker 3: How long would they keep them strapped in there?
Speaker 1: Sometimes hours at a time. Pretty gruesome.  *someone vomits* And over here we have their alphabet. It was called Emoji. Few symbols could express the vast extent of their emotion. They had chia pets just like we do. And this is the white and gold dress that caused the Civil War. This is Scott Baio, but most amazing of all are the avocados from Mexico. They’re always in season, so you can enjoy them all year long. Anybody want to feed Scott Baio? It’s included in the price of admission. No? *someone zaps away*
Speaker 3: I mean, he double dipped. He’ll regenerate.
Speaker 1: No, he won’t. Kim’s a quad mogurt.
*Jingle* Avocados From Mexico!

Stephen Semple:
I am about to get on one of those torture devices tomorrow. Oh my gosh.

Matthew Burns:
Kind of seems like we’re always on one of those torture devices, doesn’t it? Sometimes hours at a time. One of my favorite parts with that one was that the, and he lasered the guy and he disintegrates ’em, and he says he double dipped. All I could think of was Jerry Seinfeld and they double dipped the chip. Oh my God. Anyway, thank you for that, man. I appreciate it. Guys. If you like this kind of stuff, continue to subscribe and share it and yell at me for not knowing what an avocado is, fruit or vegetable. And Steve, we’ll see you on the next Sticky Sales series.

Latest posts by Sticky Sales Stories (see all)