A Pop-Tart that’s 75 times larger than what you can get at the grocery store will be available in super-limited editions starting this week. Called “The Party Pastry,” it’s the toaster pastry brand’s largest-ever tart, but it begs the question: Why does the world need a giant Pop-Tart?
Stunt marketing for snack and fast-food products—things like deluxe sizing, viral brand collaborations, or unexpected in-person experiences—has become a useful tool in the marketplace. Though some should never have happened (we won’t name names), these stunts can help drive awareness and sales. Pop-Tarts, which sells flavors like “Jolly Rancher Frosted Watermelon,” is no stranger to snack stunt tactics.
The Party Pastry follows last December’s inaugural Pop-Tarts Bowl game in Orlando where an anthropomorphic Pop-Tarts mascot named Strawberry was lowered into an oversize prop toaster oven. An edible version of the mascot popped out for the winning team to eat, and now a version of that experience can be shipped to select areas. For $60, you, too, can snack like a Pop-Tarts Bowl champion.
Sales of the Party Pastry are limited to people with delivery addresses in America’s three largest cities (either Manhattan below 120th Street or within 25 miles of the ZIP codes 91601 in Los Angeles or 60622 in Chicago), and they’ll be delivered in person between August 14 and 16 in 3-foot-tall boxes designed to look like Pop-Tarts packaging. According to the Pop-Tarts website, you can even get them customized with a frosting message.
On Pop-Tarts maker Kellanova’s most recent earnings call, CEO Steve Cahillane hinted at why stunt marketing is so on trend. Basically it boils down to fun. “Delighting consumers is never more important than it is right now,” he said.
Kellanova is a spin-off of the Kellogg Co. that sells snacks like Cheez-It crackers and Eggo waffles. Cahillane cited the company’s partnership with Taco Bell to make a Cheez-It Crunchwrap Supreme and Cheez-It Tostada as driving consumer awareness. Still to come is product innovation for other snacks, like Pringles Mingles, which are puffy chips that will come in bags instead of the iconic Pringles cans.
On their own, limited-edition giant-size Pop Tarts or puffy Pringles aren’t enough to drive substantial growth for the company, but Cahillane believes incremental sales driven by “delighting consumers” and product innovation across Kellanova’s portfolio of snack brands will be meaningful.
“The incremental net sales we expect to generate from this year’s innovation launches are much higher than the last couple of years when we have been contending with global supply disruptions,” he said on the earnings call. “Getting back to delighting consumers through innovation is a key component of what we refer to as getting back to full commercial activity.”
In other words: Expect more snack food stunts. In a splintering advertising and media market where physical store shelf space competes with digital store screen space for consumer dollars, things like jumbo sizes or cross-promotional menu items and flavors are able to earn hard-to-capture mindshare. Like a bag of chips or two-pack of Pop Tarts, though, the sales and awareness inspired by stunts can be fleeting, so snack makers are ordering up more.