Ocean Spray challenge on TikTok is good news for the No. 1 cranberry producing state -- Wisconsin
A TikTok sensation of a man cruising on a longboard listening to Fleetwood Mac and drinking Ocean Spray juice is turning into big cranberry business.
The viral video trend is being called the Ocean Spray challenge.
It's wasn't an idea dreamed up by the marketing team but an organic post that went viral.
A TikTok star's video of him sipping on Ocean Spray has been viewed tens of millions of times. For the challenge, people re-create his video by drinking cranberry juice while skateboarding to Fleetwood Mac.
That could mean good things for Wisconsin's cranberry growers.
"My wife shared it with me, my daughter shared it with me, growers have been sharing it with me," said Tom Lochner, executive director of the Wisconsin State Cranberry Growers Association.
Wisconsin is the top producer of cranberries in the U.S., according to the Wisconsin State Cranberry Growers Association. More than half of the world's supply of cranberries is grown here, according to the association.
"For us, we just hope that people can enjoy cranberries," Lochner said.
Wisconsin's 270 cranberry farms are just finishing harvest season, Lochner said. The crop was smaller than the growers would like because of cooler temperatures in August and September.
The growers thought Wisconsin would produce around 550 million pounds of cranberries this season but the total will likely be below 500 million, Lochner said.
Ocean Spray CEO Tom Hayes said in an interview with Yahoo Finance that the company can't say yet if there will be an increase in sales but that retailers have said there has been "additional draw off the shelf." Hayes said the Cran-Raspberry has been particularly popular lately. Hayes joined in on the trend and posted his own version, too.
Ocean Spray sales were increasing before the video, though.
"We have been the benefactors of, you know, some strong sales based on consumers coming back to products that they love and that give them comfort in uncomforting times," Hayes said in the interview.
"So we have seen, you know, overall sales great, and I expect to see Cran-Raspberry sales to take off quite literally in the next quarter. So yeah, we are looking forward to that."
Ocean Spray gifted the TikTok star Nathan Apodaca a 2020 Nissan Titan PRO-4X and a trunk full of Ocean Spray.
Fleetwood Mac is seeing a boost, too. The song "Dreams" is back on top songs charts.
Journalist: Sarah Hauer, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Source: https://www.jsonline.com/story/money/business/2020/10/21/tiktok-ocean-spray-challenge-good-wisconsin-cranberry-growers/6005043002/
(accessed October 21, 2020)