Kellanova CMO on the Pop-Tarts mascot and what’s next following viral bowl game

Kellanova marketers were pretty confident that its Pop-Tarts Bowl game activation would do well, but even they could not predict that it would become the biggest earned campaign in the brand’s history. The marketing stunt—which involved lowering a smiling Pop-Tarts mascot into a giant toaster where it was turned into a pastry snack for the winning Kansas State football team—set a new standard for bowl game marketing, while drawing the brand widespread attention on social media that it is still enjoying almost a week after the Dec. 28 game. *Record scratch**Freeze frame*“Yup that’s me. You’re probably wondering how I ended up in this situation” pic.twitter.com/EBEugCxhko— Pop-Tarts Bowl (@PopTartsBowl) December 29, 2023 Kellanova execs did not comment on the strategy in the days following the game, but Ad Age on Wednesday caught up with Kellanova Chief Marketing Officer Julie Bowerman to learn more about how the brand rode the wave of virality for its first sponsored bowl game. “There were a couple of things that made this partnership relevant for our brand,” Bowerman said. “First is that we have a long history of being a great snacking brand. And when you think about watching football, that is a snacking event, whether you are at the stadium or at home.” Read more: What brands can learn from Pop-Tarts’ edgy marketing The bowl game followed Pop-Tarts’ “Agents of Crazy Good” campaign launched in July of last year. The creative draws from the “Crazy Good” ads that ran in the 2000s, but now the Pop-Tarts have updated animation. And unlike in the original spots, where the characters ran away from fans trying to eat them, the Pop-Tarts characters in the newer spots put themselves in situations to entice humans to snack on them. “Our ‘Crazy Good’ platform fits nicely into college football,” Bowerman said. “It can exemplify the experience in college football, and fans can get a little crazy, have fun at that moment of celebration.” The Pop-Tarts bowl game generated an estimated $12.1 million worth of media exposure for Kellanova as of Dec. 29, according to Apex Marketing Group. For comparison, the Duke’s Mayo Bowl—which in recent years gained notice for dumping mayo on the winning coach in a victorious bath—generated an estimated $8.5 million worth of media exposure for this year's game, held a day before the Pop-Tarts Bowl. (The bowl game Pop-Tarts sponsored has cost around $2 million in the past, as reported by Sportico’s Eben Novoy Williams. Bowerman declined to give an exact figure on the cost of this year’s game.) Weber Shandwick partnered with Kellanova’s internal marketing team for the creative and Starcomm handled the media buy. Read on for more of Ad Age’s conversation with Bowerman about the planning process, coordinating with Cheez-It and Pop-Tart’s Super Bowl plans. This interview was edited for clarity and length. When we last spoke before the bowl game, you said that the goal was to get folks thinking of Pop-Tarts as a snack, not just for breakfast. Any early sales metrics or KPIs you can share? We don’t have anything directly on sales just yet, but it’s still pretty early. But I can say that this has been our single biggest earned campaign that we’ve ever seen for the brand. We had over 150,000 fans sign up to bet as part of our pre-game Prop-Tarts betting experience for the chance to win a million toaster pastries. On game day, we had six times as many people searching for our brand, and three of X’s top trending topics were Pop-Tarts. And then the mascot was ranked by USA Today as the number one mascot during the entire bowl season. That was exciting to see. So our sense is that’s going to all translate to sales for sure. But early metrics are blowing us away, too. The Pop-Tarts Bowl is a multi-year deal. How do you top that next year, or do you let this stand alone? When you hit a home run, you certainly continue to ride it. I think you'll continue to see us building off the platform of “Crazy Good,” with mascots, and more fun and humor. Those will continue to be a big part of what we communicate in advertising and experiences. This was not a one-and-done for sure. As it relates to the next bowl game, we haven’t even begun to think about that. I’m sure there will be much that we use and learn from this year to, hopefully, have another star performance next year. What stood out in the planning process? Were there any ideas that you all didn’t think would be totally brand-safe at first glance? I have to give a lot of credit to Weber Shandwick and our internal marketing team. A big part of this was listening to our consumer and using the outside-in approach to tell us what was going to resonate and break through culture. The parts that were humorous and maybe perceived as pushing the envelope a little bit, were really grounded in what we know about our consumers. And that gave us confidence in making those decisions. There were a lot of planning meetings where we were just laughing. Someone would bring forward an idea, and we would just all laugh. We knew when that happened, we had a great idea. Any chance we see a Pop-Tarts Super Bowl ad this year? I can’t comment on what we have planned for the Super Bowl. You’ll be hearing from us soon on what we’re doing for the Super Bowl, so I can’t reveal too much at this point. Super Bowl commercials Tracking the latest brand and agency plans Enter here Were the Pop-Tarts and Cheez-It Citrus Bowls coordinated?(Kellanova also sponsored the Jan. 1 Cheez-It Citrus Bowl, where a sunglasses-wearing Cheez-It mascot rose out of a giant box of the crackers. But this one held a sign saying, “Non-edible mascot.”) Cheez-Its has been a partner of the Citrus Bowl for some time now, so we have a lot of great learnings and experiences activation in college football with Cheez-Its. Certainly a lot of those learnings translated into how we designed and thought about the Pop-Tart’s experience. As for the coordination, yes to some extent. The teams work very closely together. The woman who leads experience planning for Pop-Tarts works really closely with the woman who leads experiences for Cheez-Its. So there is cross-sharing and looking for opportunities that can amplify the activation of the other.

Kellanova CMO on the Pop-Tarts mascot and what’s next following viral bowl game

Featured Stories