Northwest Cherries' Sales Soar With Cherry-Picked Taiwanese Pop Icons

Northwest Cherries' Sales Soar With Cherry-Picked Taiwanese Pop Icons

Northwest Cherry Growers Illustrate 'Fruitful' Partnership in Taiwan by Aligning With Country's Chart-Topping Singing Sensations

SEATTLE, June 14 /PRNewswire/ -- Picture this: eVonne, one of Taiwan's biggest pop sensations, strolling under the midday sun through a Yakima Valley cherry orchard. MTV Asia award winning music video director Kuang Sheng Fu trains his camera on eVonne's expressive face, but also carefully frames in hanging clusters and crates full of shining Bing cherries. In this video, the fruit is every bit as much the star, part of a winning marketing alliance between Northwest Cherry Growers and Taiwanese record companies.

A recently shot video was part of eVonne's third trip to Washington state in collaboration with Northwest Cherry Growers and Universal Music Group. For the past seven years, NWCG has selected some of Taiwan's biggest, recording stars to shoot at Northwest orchards to promote its cherries as a sensuous and hip foreign luxury in Taiwan.

The numbers talk. In 1996, the season before Northwest Cherry Growers started its consumer oriented marketing program in Taiwan, the island nation received 293,000 twenty-pound boxes of Northwest cherries. Today, Taiwan has grown to a near million box market for NWCG and export value has increased from less than $8 million to a peak of more than $31.5 million. Taiwan is now NWCG's second largest export market.

Among the dozen music videos that NWCG has helped to produce since 1999, seven have made it to number one in Taiwan. Each year, the video releases are timed to coincide with the peak of the Bing and Rainier cherry harvest from late June through early August, with MTV Asia playing the videos up to once every hour. NWCG estimates that each season's exposure is worth roughly $4 million in advertising. The organization considers that rate of return well worth its annual investment of about $100,000 (usually expended on product for Taiwan based promotions, video crew/talent travel to the Northwest and video location incidentals).

As part of the strategy, Taiwan music videos are shot in the Northwest annually, and cherries are the visual theme. Additional scenes feature Seattle locations and cherry "planted" studio sets, such as a brimming bowl of fresh cherries, or cherry-laden jewelry and accessories worn by the star.

"Even during album promotional appearances on TV talk shows and radio, the conversation inevitably turns to cherries," eVonne said. "We've also handed out cherries to audience members and held fun contests to win them, so cherries have become both a video theme and consumer status symbol."

eVonne's latest "Shape of Love" music video will be broadcast this summer across Taiwan and China, accompanied by promotional concerts outside select supermarkets, which furthers the buzz (and occasional buying frenzy) of Northwest Cherries. Come June 10, she will continue her tour with Hong Kong theater legend Jackie Cheung as the co-star in his new Mandarin-language musical production of Snow Wolf Lake, increasing her exposure in Asia and clout for Northwest Cherry Growers.

NWCG was formed in 1966 to promote cherries grown in Washington state, Oregon, Idaho, and Utah. To learn more, visit www.nwcherries.com.

Source: Northwest Cherry Growers

CONTACT: Lisa Nourse of Tamara Wilson Public Relations, +1-206-838-8977,
or lisan@tamarawilson.com, for Northwest Cherry Growers

Web site: http://www.nwcherries.com/

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