Spanish Olive Oils Kicks Off Promotional Campaign in New York

The Spanish Olive Oil Interprofessional trade asso­ci­a­tion, with the finan­cial sup­port of the European Union this month launched a three-year, mul­ti­chan­nel cam­paign to pro­mote olive oil as an inte­gral part of the Mediterranean diet (MedDiet).

Under the slo­gan ​“Let’s Make A Tastier World,” the cam­paign will focus largely on the gas­tro­nomic and health ben­e­fits of ​“liq­uid gold.” It will be car­ried out in major cities across the con­ti­nen­tal United States — namely Miami, San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles and New York — in addi­tion to extend­ing to Asia and other coun­tries in Europe.

“This is one of the most sig­nif­i­cant pro­mo­tional ini­tia­tives to have been under­taken in the olive oil sec­tor in the entire world,” said Pedro Barato, pres­i­dent of the Spanish Olive Oil Interprofessional, at a pro­mo­tional event at the Cervantes Institute in New York City. ​“Over the next three years, we will spread the word about the culi­nary, nutri­tional and health­ful val­ues of a food prod­uct that had its ori­gins in the Mediterranean and which has been con­quer­ing the world for quite some time.”

The cam­paign will extend across land, sea and air by way of the ​“Olive Oil Lounge.” With express tast­ings, edu­ca­tional infor­ma­tion, kid-friendly activ­i­ties and WiFi hotspots, trav­el­ers pass­ing through air­ports, train sta­tions and sea­ports will have unique access to one of Spain’s proud­est exports.

The con­tent will focus on the major vari­etals of Spanish olive oil (Picual, Hojiblanca, Arbequina and Cornicabra), as well as the qual­ity stan­dards dic­tated by the EU con­cern­ing its safety, san­i­tary mea­sures, label­ing and nutri­tional guide­lines.

“When the time came for us to con­sider the phi­los­o­phy of this cam­paign, we made an in-depth analy­sis of who this should reach and how to get to that per­son,” explained Barato, ​“and we came to the con­clu­sion that peo­ple who travel have a spe­cial aware­ness for try­ing new expe­ri­ences — also in their cui­sine. This is why we have focused our strat­egy on cen­ters in this coun­try with high con­cen­tra­tions of trav­el­ers.”

The United States became Spain’s sec­ond largest cus­tomer in 2017, rep­re­sent­ing over 11% of the country’s exports. And on a global scale, the U.S. ranks third in con­sump­tion at slightly over 300,000 tons per year. However, as Barato explained, con­sump­tion is very con­cen­trated on the east and west coasts with a large, untapped ter­ri­tory between still to be won over.

“Per capita con­sump­tion in this coun­try doesn’t even reach 1 kilo per per­son per year, com­pared to the 13 that are con­sumed in Spain,” he said.“This is a huge chal­lenge for us.”

Currently, Spain pro­duces half of the olive oil in the world, with more than six mil­lion acres of olive groves and 340 mil­lion olive trees. The coun­try also boasts more than 200 types of olives, each with a dis­tinc­tive aroma and fla­vor pro­file suited to dif­fer­ent food prod­ucts. The hope is that, as the cam­paign increases the use fre­quency of olive oil, Spain will become syn­ony­mous with the prod­uct.

But in order to make a size­able impact in North America, mem­bers of the Spanish Olive Oil Interprofessional knew there had to be a dual focus on fla­vor and nutri­tion, cit­ing North Americans’ desire to eat more health­fully with­out sac­ri­fic­ing gas­tro­nomic plea­sures. In order to do this, they invited chef, cook­book author and well­ness expert Seamus Mullen to join the cam­paign.

Mullen, who spent for­ma­tive years liv­ing and cook­ing in Spain, turned to the MedDiet when faced with what doc­tors repeat­edly told him was an ​“incur­able” autoim­mune dis­ease. With a renewed empha­sis on healthy fats, veg­eta­bles and whole grains, Mullen was able to slowly reverse all bio­log­i­cal mark­ers of the dis­ease and lauded olive oil as ​“the glue that runs through all the food I cook.”

“There is a rea­son the sub­ti­tle of [my book] ​‘Real Food Heals’ is ​‘eat to feel younger and stronger every day,’ as chang­ing the way I cooked save my life,” said Mullen. ​“We hope you will help spread the word of how you can enjoy a hap­pier and health­ier life by incor­po­rat­ing olive oil into your meal plans.”