Case Study Texas Pecan Board

Problem

Pecans have long been stuck in consumers’ minds as a baking nut for holidays. They are stored at room temperature in the baking aisle at most grocery stores and then in the pantry at consumers’ homes, while their high oil content leaves them with a tendency to go rancid in these conditions. Consumers who experience a rancid pecan tend to associate that bitter taste with the nut, when in actuality a well stored pecan has a naturally sweet taste that is not bitter at all. Pecans connection to Texas is long and storied, and today the pecan tree is the state tree of Texas, the pecan pie is the state pie, and the pecan is the official state health nut. This nut, while iconic to Texas, has increasingly been losing its market value, and farmers aren’t able to get enough money for their pecans. While many pecan farms in Texas are multigenerational, these farmers are facing difficult times as the price per pound for pecans declines. At the same time, a global pandemic hit, changing the entire food industry.

Solution

Building upon Wild Hive’s success in 2019 with the Texas Pecan Board, introducing Texas pecans to key influencers within trade marketing with in-person events, in 2020, Wild Hive sought to elevate the Texas pecan brand as a premium nut by better connecting Texas pecans with another premium, iconic product in the state—wine. With both Texas wine and Texas pecans offering agritourism components and targeting a more sophisticated audience, the pair offered the perfect two-step from a marketing standpoint.

Wild Hive took a multipronged approach to creating a nexus between these two industries while generating consumer awareness and traditional and social media coverage, through its campaign dubbed, A Toast to Texas Pecans

To start, Wild Hive worked to secure a gubernatorial proclamation declaring Texas Pecan Month in October, which coincides with Texas Wine Month, creating a platform and connection point for both industries. We created a comprehensive toolkit for industry members to leverage throughout the month of October and helped connect them with nearby wineries. Amid a pandemic and to generate coverage and interest in Texas pecans, Wild Hive launched a month-long effort for October that included Texas Pecan Month media pitching and a Texas Pecan and Wine virtual tasting to cement the relationship between these two products and bring the industries into each other’s spheres of operation. In collaboration with sommelier Jessica Dupuy and culinary expert Melissa Guerra, Wild Hive created a virtual tasting that offered consumers an opportunity to purchase a tasting kit with five different Texas wines from five different Texas wineries, along with Texas pecans, and a beautiful Texas pecan and wine pairing booklet.  Dupuy curated the wines, while Guerra created Texas pecan centric recipes that paired perfectly with the selected wines. The pair, along with the executive director of the Texas Pecan Board, led the wine and pecan tasting, promoted it through their channels.Solution

Result

Through our direct media outreach and distribution of a press release, the overall effort has generated over 123 million impressions nationwide. We provided content and information to TDA to support their efforts for Texas Wine Month, as well as for Texas Pecan Month. Texas Wines Uncorked helped to amplify the messaging through email blasts and social media. Over 100 attendees participated in the virtual tasting and a post-event survey showed that 96 percent of respondents rated the event as good or excellent, and 100 percent were interested in participating in a similar event in the future. In the future, the effort aims to generate more synergies between the two industries, especially from an agritourism standpoint. In fact post-event survey respondents indicated they wanted to visit a pecan orchard (75 percent) or winery (86 percent). As a result of the campaign and tasting, we pecan growers and wineries in Texas have developed holiday consumer packages and are identifying new ways to collaborate.