Emerald Bowl Attracts Record Televised Audience

SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Diamond Foods, Inc. (NASDAQ: DMND) today announced that the eighth annual Emerald Bowl set a new record television rating.

The Emerald Bowl was broadcast nationally on ESPN in prime time on Saturday night and featured a match up between the University of Southern California Trojans and Boston College Eagles, playing for the first time in more than 20 years.

 The television rating of 5.34 was not only the highest in Emerald Bowl history, but also the second highest rated ESPN football bowl game ever watched. This rating translates into over 5.2 million households and over 8 million viewers for the game.

The game also attracted a sellout crowd, the third in the last four years of the Emerald Bowl.

"When the Emerald Bowl was conceived in 2002, we hoped for a unique match up between two teams with national appeal," said Andrew Burke, (middle right photo) Senior Vice President of Marketing for Diamond Foods.

"We were pleased to have USC and Boston College in the game to help us fill the stadium with enthusiastic fans and draw millions of television viewers.

"Emerald Bowl attendees were able to experience both the Emerald® and Pop Secret® brands throughout game day with product sampling, marketing activation inside and outside AT&T Park and in-game contests and advertising.

"In addition, Emerald and Diamond® advertisements, as well as the brand new Pop Secret commercial featuring animated kernels acting out a scene from the Dark Knight, were aired on television throughout the Emerald Bowl and during other ESPN bowl games on Saturday."

The Emerald Bowl is the only NCAA bowl game featuring a match up between the ACC and Pac-10 conferences. This year's closely-contested game ended in a 24-13 victory for The University of Southern California.

Diamond Foods has been the title sponsor of the Emerald Bowl since its inception in 2002. The Emerald snack line features innovative, great tasting snack nut products and is distributed nationally in a variety of retail outlets.

For more details about the Emerald Bowl, visit http://www.emeraldbowl.org/.

Diamond is a leading branded food company specializing in producing, marketing and distributing culinary nuts and snack products under the Diamond, Emerald and Pop Secret brands.

Corporate Web Site: http://www.diamondfoods.com/
Consumer Web Sites: http://www.emeraldnuts.com/,  http://www.diamondnuts.com/,  and http://www.popsecret.com/

Contacts:
Annie Liu, 415-445-7425 (Media), Communications Assistant, aliu@diamondfoods.com
Bob Philipps, 415-445-7426 (Investors), VP, Treasury & Investor Relations, bphilipps@diamondfoods.com