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CHICAGO — Iconic candy brand SweeTARTS is introducing itself to a new generation of candy lovers with the launch of its largest integrated marketing effort in recent years. Kicking off this week, the “Be Both” campaign champions Gen Z, which Pew Research Center calls the most diverse generation, and their desire to reject one-dimensional definitions of identity, by celebrating the intersection of their passions, expressions and tastes, and connecting this multiplicity back to the brand’s multitude of colliding flavors, textures and forms.
The campaign, developed by SweeTARTS’ new lead creative agency Duncan Channon, brings to life SweeTARTS’ new, vibrant and design-forward visual identity through an animated world of people who appear to be one way – a prim ballet dancer, a shy partygoer, a modest older woman, and a methodical scientist – and are revealed to be much more than what they seem at first glance. The multiple aspects of the characters’ identities that are unveiled mirrors SweeTARTS’ diversity of flavors, textures and forms, which are visually woven throughout the spots. Four new :15-second TV spots, including: Grace and Grit, Science & Art, Wise and Wild and Shy and Fly, will air nationally on stations reaching the target audience, age 18-24, such as E!, Comedy Central, ESPN, FX, IFC, MTV and Vice WWE, as well as on Hulu and social channels. Additionally, two :6 digital spots, including Long and Short and Hard and Chewy, will appear over the next month to showcase the breadth of the product portfolio. The brand’s heavy media investment will also be supported with a robust social media presence and influencer activity.
“We see tremendous opportunity for SweeTARTS to connect with young adults who expect modern brands to understand and reflect their identities,” said Annie Meyer, marketing director at Ferrara Candy Co. “That’s why we’re so excited to launch the ‘Be Both’ campaign. Our brand is inspiring, playful, courageous and energetic – and fundamentally built on a duality of ‘sweet’ & ‘tart’ – so it’s a natural fit for SweeTARTS to celebrate people who are living unapologetically colorful and multidimensional lives.”
The campaign reflects the modernization of the SweeTARTS product portfolio, which now offers much more than the brand’s original sweet and tart hard candy that launched in 1963. The portfolio now includes multi-texture and multi-flavor formats that are highly relevant – but less well known – to today’s candy consumers, including SweeTARTS Ropes, SweeTARTS Gummies, and SweeTARTS Chewy. In particular, SweeTARTS Ropes are growing 5x faster than the category, according to IRI data from April 2018-April 2019.
“We were inspired by the cultural truth that Gen Z lives in a world where no one wants to be just one thing, or be forced to choose between multiple aspects of their personal truth,” said Kelleen Peckham, director of brand strategy, Duncan Channon. “The ‘Be Both’ idea and campaign embraces surprising mash-ups in our personal expression, just as SweeTARTS candy offers unexpected collisions of flavor, texture and color.”
