After the almond milk brand hit 30% distribution and a 30% repeat purchase rate on its new products, it is now investing in a brand awareness campaign with “Dancing With the Stars” alum Julianne Hough.

Blue Diamond Growers recently launched two new almond milks to cater to consumer trends: high protein and clean ingredients.

The almond brand’s goal is to get more consumers to try almond milk and grow the category, said Maya Erwin, Vice President of Marketing and Innovation at Blue Diamond Growers.

While its staple product, Almond Breeze, appeals to one use case, to attract more consumers, the brand launched Chocolate Protein, a high-protein chocolate almond milk, and Unsweetened Simple, an almond milk with only three ingredients — almonds, water and sea salt. It took about six to eight months to develop these products, Erwin said.

Blue Diamond as a company is growing, but the overall category is not, she said.

“The larger strategy is definitely to continue to try to bring more consumers into almond milk, to introduce almond milk to the younger generations, to try to grow the category and give more reasons to use almond milk, more occasions to use almond milk,” Erwin said. “The main strategy is to get almond milk as a category growing again.”

Blue Diamond Aims to Double Awareness and Appeal to Gen Z and Millennials

Blue Diamond’s typical almond milk customer is Gen X, Erwin said. To appeal to millennials and Gen Z consumers with these new products, Blue Diamond recently launched a campaign featuring dancer Julianne Hough, known from the TV show “Dancing With the Stars.”

Hough’s social media audience caters to this age demographic, Erwin said. Plus, Hough drinks Blue Diamond almond milk and follows a healthy diet for her dance life, which made her a credible fit for the brand. Along with the Hough spot, Blue Diamond will also have social media ads and in-store demonstrations that will run through August 2027.

The brand will measure the success of the campaign with impressions and whether younger generations purchase the product. The campaign should also generate more overall awareness for Blue Diamond products, she said.

“We’re hoping that it helps drive more trial,” Erwin said. “Ultimately, that would drive more sales for both a retailer and for our organization. We’re really focused on trying to double our awareness, double our trial, and make people more aware of the new launch.”

Blue Diamond’s Awareness Campaign Follows In-Store Tactics

Results from the campaign may begin to show four to six weeks after launch, although timing varies, Erwin said. For a new product, the results come faster than for an established one, she said.

“It’s much more about an equity building,” Erwin said. “It’s a slow, gradual build over time. As you can imagine, staying top-of-mind with consumers, it’s really challenging to break through and get them to remember you, put them on the list, and then also go in store and once in store to purchase us.”

This campaign featuring Hough comes 10 months after the products launched. When these products debuted in stores, Blue Diamond focused its marketing initiatives there, where shoppers are making their buying decisions, she said. Blue Diamond had samples, coupons and signage to encourage shoppers to buy.

This allowed Blue Diamond to build momentum for its products. The brand wanted to ensure it positioned the products correctly, the packaging was good and it reached its target repeat purchase rate of 30% to 40%. Once the brand has confidence in those metrics, it moves on to the broader awareness campaign, Erwin said.

“We want to be able to make sure if we’re going to tell everybody to go out and try the products that they can find them at their local store,” she said. “So we’re looking for critical distribution and then we’re looking for repeat levels 30% or higher. Some of our KPIs, we want distribution to be 30% or higher. Those are kind of some critical pieces for us.”