Shortly before and during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Mondelēz International took a deeper look at its Chips Ahoy! brand to figure out how it could better reach the next generation of snackers.
The 62-year-old cookie brand wanted to attract interest from Generation Z and other consumers looking for a sweet, indulgent treat. To do that, Chips Ahoy! began experimenting with new flavors, formats and innovative partnerships.
Since then, Mondelēz has launched a bigger-sized cookie, a gluten-free option and a Chocolate Caramel flavor. Earlier this year, the CPG giant launched Chips Ahoy! Baked Bites, cube-shaped snacks that are chewy and viewed as a more indulgent treat.
Mondelēz took the cookie into another first with the recent launch of the brand’s first-ever fruit-flavored cookie, part of a partnership with the Netflix series “Stranger Things.” The collaboration provided Chips Ahoy! with an opportunity to connect with younger shoppers, boost brand awareness and provide the cookie with a hip, modern feel.
The focus has paid off. Chips Ahoy! has posted a 1.8% compound annual growth rate during the last three years. It's also the leading chocolate chip cookie brand in the category, with sales of approximately $1 billion and more than a 50% market share, according to Mondelēz.
Chris Park, director of Chips Ahoy! and cakes/pastry innovation at Mondelēz, recently sat down with Food Dive to discuss the cookie brand and the importance of connecting with Gen. Z consumers.
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
FOOD DIVE: You recently teamed up with Netflix’s ‘Stranger Things’ ahead of the show’s final season to create the fruit-flavored cookie. Tell us more about that.
CHRIS PARK: This is a great example of how we're tying into a cultural moment that's very relevant to some of our biggest fans of our cookie and the segments that we want to grow with. And I think in the future, this is a vehicle that we have that we will continue to leverage and look for as opportunities to connect with our consumers closely. Limited editions with a partnership, I think, are a really great way to not only engage fans of the property that you're obviously partnering with, but also doing it in a really dramatic and big way of coming up with a very unique cookie going to market in stores with really, really great-looking displays.
There's just a ton of awareness and buzz that we're driving with this. I think through our PR campaigns and our product launch, we've generated billions and billions of impressions, with a lot of engaged fans commenting to us how cool our linkage with this property is.
What does this partnership with Stranger Things bring to Chips Ahoy!?
Park: This is really all about us trying to connect with our Gen Z consumer. They're a very big portion of our consumer base, but I think it's an area that we want to continue to grow. So, for example, with “Stranger Things,” we know that the show overindexes with Gen Z consumers, and a lot of the fans are Gen Z, and that's why it's a really great partnership for us to strategically engage the audience that we want.
The second purpose is that we are a very old brand. We've been around. Everybody knows us. What a partnership like this provides is staying relevant in the consumers' minds, showing that we are, even though we're a very traditional and old brand, we are keeping up with ... the times and the trends that we see in the market. So I think that really goes far for us as a brand, and that consumers will think of the brand not only as the cookie that they love growing up and the cookie that they enjoy today, but a brand that's really, really into culture, and I think that has a lot of positive returns for us as far as our consumer base and engagement.
The last thing is that folks are already consuming Chips Ahoy!. We know that they're loyal fans, and we definitely want to continue to serve them. But I think an activation like this is where it really stands out, right? If you walk the stores when our displays are up and you see the big red, monster guy ... it really stops you. And you're like, oh, it's Chips Ahoy!. It's “Stranger Things.” I like “Stranger Things.” I may not have bought Chips Ahoy! before. Maybe I'll give it a shot. We want to continue to keep them in the brand.
How important are Gen Z consumers for Chips Ahoy!?
PARK: We've become one of Gen Z's top brands, along with brands like Oreo and Netflix. And I think that's a testament to the journey that we've been on as a brand. We know that Gen Z consumers are going to become a very powerful generation for years to come. And for a brand like us, tapping into the Gen Z trends, and being a top Gen Z brand, will only set us up for the future. We have a very robust base of Gen Z consumers, and we want to just take that to the next level.
We know that the behavior and the culture that the Gen Z population brings is going to be extremely relevant. So for our brand, it's one of the most important target audiences that we have identified for us to be relevant and grow with.
Part of the partnership with “Stranger Things” was the launch of Chips Ahoy!’s first-ever fruit-flavored cookie. Why was now the time for an innovation like this?
PARK: This is a limited-edition strawberry-flavored filling in a chocolate brownie cookie for a limited time. I think it is going to generate that, "Hey, this is really different and really new from Chips Ahoy!" If you're a loyal Chips Ahoy! consumer, it drives excitement for you. You can try a different flavor. And you can come back to [the traditional cookie] or you kind of switch your regimen.
But what innovation does deliver is a little bit of that buzzworthiness. So we don't stagnate as a portfolio.
What we want to do is become a very broad snack that can appeal to a lot of consumers and many different occasions. And I think what we're trying to do, from a product portfolio point of view, is making sure that we can deliver a product and a pack for the occasion, for the consumer at the right place.
It's innovation that expands occasions, limited editions that drive tons of buzz, with really relevant partnerships and just making sure that our cookie continues to stay top of mind.
