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At The Hershey Company, the candy is the star, but marketing executives at the chocolate titan have figured out a way for the sweets to share screen time with some notable guests.
Katseye, the popular all-girl pop group, will have a significant role in a new ad campaign aimed at introducing new Hershey’s Crème Bars to consumers — and their appearance suggests marketers long attached to themes of nostalgia are willing to break some longstanding rules in a bid to get noticed in a crowded marketplace.
Hershey’s doesn’t need to do a lot to stand apart. The wrappers for its signature chocolate bar and Reese’s chocolate-and-peanut-butter candy are cultural icons. And yet, the company may need something differ to catch the attention of younger customers, says Stacy Taffet, the company’s chief growth and marketing officer, during a recent interview.
“There’s a lot of trust and nostalgia and emotional connection” tied to Hershey products, Taffet says. “But as we think about a younger cohort, in particular, Gen Z, teens, twenty-somethings, they love Hershey, but they also want to experiment with new flavors, different textures, more indulgent premium experiences.” The new Crème Bars, which come in flavors such as affogato and salted caramel, are meant to stand as something more indulgent, and an alliance with Katseye was seen as a way to nudge a consumer who might not put Hershey in the realm of fancier treats.
To emphasize the luxurious nature of the new candy, Katseye sings its song “Pinky Up” in what appears to be the car of a New York subway, with bites of the treat spurring riders to dance and move.
The campaign will turn up in streaming video, digital, in national TV, in streaming audio, in social media and on murals in Brooklyn and Los Angeles.
Hershey is one of several big candy and snack-makers trying to cultivate younger crowds with new flavors and textures. Ferrara Candy Co., for example, has driven sales by transforming its decades-old Nerds from what were once fruity candy pebbles into candies that have new textures that give consumers a different sort of “mouth feel.”
“We are starting to push the boundaries on where our categories can go, thinking about our innovation process,” says Taffet “We are using different types of tools, including AI and social listening to get further ahead of where the consumer is going.” In recent months, Hershey’s has introduced new flavors to Reese’s, including one that pairs the candy with Oreo cookies.
The executive says an effort is afoot to enter the lives of a young generation that indulges in what she calls “selective splurging.” Younger consumers “are really intentional in how they spend their dollars. And if they’re going to spend money on something, it’s going to be for an experience that they think is special relative to other things they could spend their money on,” says Taffet. If there’s an extra dollar to be spent, it’s “going to go to something that’s a little bit more special and bring something new that they haven’t experienced before. That bar is high, but I think it’s inspiring us” to try new methods.
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