Peanuts and Soccer Make the Perfect Team

The National Peanut Board (NPB) is continuing our work with The18 — the most popular soccer website based in the U.S. according to ComScore — to engage players and fans of the sport through informative and interactive campaigns. Our goal is to reach consumers in fun, engaging ways to show them how peanuts can be part of any athlete’s or active person’s diet.

The 2022-23 calendar offers a unique opportunity to engage within the sport, with both the men’s and women’s World Cups playing out within 12 months. Fans across the U.S. and the world will be watching the sport, which allows us to take advantage of heightened interest to increase affinity and understanding of peanuts as a good source of protein and other nutrients for active people.

To date, we have worked with some of the biggest names in U.S. soccer to elevate peanuts — from Landon Donovan and Sydney Leroux to Jordan Morris and Weston McKennie. Since 2021, we have told stories that highlight peanuts as a part of the soccer lifestyle, which generated more than 34 million impressions and 9 million content engagements.

Over the past year, our campaign theme has been the “Official Sponsor of Teamwork” and we’ve done activations that engage players at all levels of the sport — from youth to college to the pros. The campaign celebrates how teams and players who work together can achieve great things. Peanut butter is highlighted as the ultimate teammate, blending well with almost any food ingredient to make a great snack.

During the men’s World Cup, we told a series of stories that connected at both the college and professional level of the sport to inspire young athletes with our teamworkfocused message. First, The18 collaborated with a pair of social media-active college athletes to showcase what life is like as a D1 college player through a behind-the-scenes video series. We then worked with U.S. player Weston McKennie (who we previously worked with during the 2021 Olympics) to produce a documentary exploring McKennie’s upbringing and how his support system helped him achieve success. This content garnered over 1.5 million impressions and 500,000 engagements.

This spring, we focused on highlighting the role of peanuts during the recovery process between games, with several educational articles and complementary social content. We also shared some of our favorite smoothie recipes that can help with recovery times. Looking forward to later in 2023, NPB and The18 have significant plans for the women’s tournament taking place in Australia and New Zealand in July and August.

See our previous activations with The18 by scanning the QR code above.