WCN Dec e

A WORD FROM THE BOARD: AMERICAN PECAN COUNCIL
A Peek into the Pecan
Powerhouses Network
By AMERICAN PECAN COUNCIL | Contributing Writer
In our last article, we shared about
the various marketing activations
we’ve engaged in this past year to
reach the eyes and minds of a crucial
audience: health professionals and
registered dieticians. These individuals
educate and engage with consumers as
experts in health, nutrition and wellness.
They advise people on what to eat,
so by reaching them, we can move the
needle in the health food and wellness
marketplace at large. We’ve engaged
with this audience on multiple fronts,
from developing useful nutrition resources
to partnering with well-known
and well-respected influencers and
chefs amongst the health professional
community. In this article, we will hone
in on two of the most significant and
rewarding activations to date, which
have been ongoing efforts for the past
two years now: The Pecan Powerhouses
Network and our partnership with
the Retail Dietitians Business Alliance
(RDBA).
Pecan Powerhouses Network
The Pecan Powerhouses Network
is an exclusive network the APC
has developed, comprised of
health and wellness leaders who
receive first-hand access to
innovative recipes, engaging
educational resources and
cutting-edge research,
all highlighting the
JAN 12, 2022
PECAN
DAY
Yuba-Sutter Fairgrounds
power of the Original
Supernut. This group
of credentialed health
professionals (registered
dietitian nutritionist,
physician, nurse,
fitness professional, etc.)
and students in a health-related
field (dietetic intern,
medical student, etc.) chose to opt
in and were vetted before receiving
acceptance. They are enthusiastic about
pecans and are keen on sharing their
unique health benefits and culinary
applications with their communities.
We launched the Pecan Powerhouses
Network in 2020, and it has seen
continued growth in 2021. This year
alone, we recruited 332 new members
through our activations engaging this
audience, bringing total membership to
over 600. We distributed four quarterly
newsletters to all members to-date,
with a 40.4% average open-rate and
6.5% average click-through rate, both
above industry standards.
A huge win this year has been the
launch of a quarterly webinar series as
a way to regularly engage with and provide
meaningful, educational content
to our Pecan Powerhouse Members,
despite the limitations of the pandemic.
Through this series, we covered pecans’
tree-to-table story, which garnered
1,266 registrants over the four events,
recruited 134 new Pecan Powerhouse
Network members and reached 93k+
health professionals via targeted webinar
promotions.
The final webinar in the series,
“Holistic Nutrition Strategies: A Threefold,
Evidence-Based Approach to
Immune Health,” which took place on
September 22, 2021 and was led by the
co-founder of the Culinary Nutrition
Collaborative, Kristy Del Coro, was our
most-successful webinar to-date. We
track this success based off key metrics
like registration & attendance as well
as from post-webinar surveys we’ve
conducted to gather feedback. Webinar
registration has more than tripled
since the inaugural event in January
2021, showing how far we’ve come in
such little time. In our pre-webinar
communications for the Q4 webinar,
we reached 25.3k+ health professionals
across four promotional channels and
had 40% of our 702 registrants attend
the live event. The objective of this webinar
was to discuss the key micronutrients
for immune health, creative and
convenient culinary pairings featuring
immune-supporting ingredients, and
evidence-based lifestyle habits to incorporate
into their practice as a nutrition
professional. Attendee Q&A focused on
nutrient changes resulting from preparing
pecans in recipe applications and
specific benefits of the key micronutrients
discussed. In our post-webinar
survey distributed immediately following
the webinar, 86% of respondents
rated the webinar very good or excellent,
85% said they learned something
new about key micronutrients for immune
health, creative culinary pairings
and evidence-based lifestyle habits, and
65% plan to incorporate all or most of
the information they learned into their
Register today at
82 wcngg.com/PecanDay
West Coast Nut December 2021