Hostess Brands Returns with 'Sweetest Comeback'

Kansas City, Mo. — After an eighth-month hiatus and consumer fear that they may never return, Hostess snack cakes are back on store shelves. The 88-year-old brand that produces Twinkies and CupCakes has been resurrected by a new company, Hostess Brands LLC. The previous company, Hostess Brands Inc., was liquidated in 2012, and two investment companies purchased the Hostess snack-cake business in 2013. The new company relaunched the products in July with a fully integrated advertising, PR, social media and guerrilla marketing campaign called “The Sweetest Comeback in the History of Ever.”“While the brand’s historically core customer of moms continues to be very important, the comeback campaign definitely signals a new attitude for the brand and a push to broaden the appeal of the products beyond loyal fans to a younger, hipper audience of 18- to 30-year-olds,” says David Leavitt, vice president of marketing.To that end, Hostess engaged consumers prelaunch with billboards and with updates to the brand’s Facebook site that included a launch countdown. Street teams canvassed Chicago, Los Angeles and New York to hand out “Prepare Your Cake Face” T-shirts and “I saved the Twinkie” buttons. And consumers were encouraged to post videos of their “cake faces” on Vine and Instagram, and some were then featured on a promotional website, Prepareyourcakeface.com.On launch day (July 15), the brand debuted its Hostesscakes.com website. A Twinkie the Kid mascot and the Hostess Food Truck made major TV appearances and offered product samples in New York to start a nationwide tour. Consumers were encouraged to engage with Hostess through all of its social channels, including Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, Tumblr and Instagram.The launch began with the shipment of about 100 million snack cakes and a new distribution plan, under which Hostess products are delivered to retailers’ warehouses rather than individual stores. “This enables us to reach more channels than ever before, including tens of thousands of vending machines, dollar stores, club stores and drug stores that were previously inaccessible,” Leavitt says. “We are working with retailers to maximize the category opportunities to get into multiple areas of stores, including and beyond where we had merchandised in the past.”New merchandising partner Acosta Sales & Marketing, Jacksonville, Fla., helped Hostess get the products into three different areas of stores in the grocery and mass channels. Single-serve wire racks were placed in the front of stores to capture the impulse purchase. Multipack displays went near the bakery section. And doughnut tables were placed at the back of stores near the milk section. Convenience stores focused on single-serve packages. “It was a very quick relaunch and they launched in the entire country in all channels at the same time, so it was just a herculean effort,” says Mike Galvin, Acosta vice president of client development.The initial displays and packaging prominently featured the “Sweetest Comeback” theme, but the displays are designed to be updated as the campaign progresses.From prelaunch through the first days of the official launch campaign, Hostess generated 372 million total Twitter impressions and an increase of more than 1,000% in Instagram followers. The Hostess Facebook page had also gained more than 300,000 fans since the launch.Leavitt views the relaunch as an unqualified success: “The comeback showed the importance of the Hostess brand to the overall category. When Hostess left the market, the category dropped by double digits. The comeback has produced a swing back into positive territory.”Agency partners included LAK Public Relations, New York; advertising agency Bernstein-Rein, Kansas City, Kan.; Marketing Werks, Chicago (for street teams); Chicago Display, Chicago (for in-store display design); and Lundmark, Kansas City, Kan. (for packaging). New York-based private investment firms Metroupoulos & Co. and Apollo Global Management own Hostess Brands LLC.

Hostess Brands Returns with 'Sweetest Comeback'

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