Hostess puts 4/20 in play with first Smucker ad campaign

This story was republished with permission from AdAge and written by Erica Wheless.

The J.M. Smucker Co. (NYSE: SJM) is running its first campaign for Hostess, the maker of Twinkies and Ding Dongs, aiming to connect with a wider audience of sweet snackers including fans of 4/20, marijuana’s unofficial holiday.

The effort, which brings various Hostess products together in a single campaign, comes about 16 months after Smucker finalized its $5.6 billion acquisition of Hostess Brands Inc.

“People were looking at snacks as individual brands, not part of Hostess, so there was a lack of understanding about variety,” said Gail Hollander, Smucker’s chief marketing officer. “That’s why the ads have multiple products to communicate variety.”

The “Speakie Snackie” campaign, which includes that phrase as its tagline, comes from Publicis Groupe’s dedicated Smucker agency PSOne, which includes BBH USA. Phrases in the ads play on the names of Hostess snacks, such as “Donette stop watching” and “We Twinkie-swear.”

“These brand names have been part of the vernacular for over 100 years,” Hollander said. “We felt like there was a language thing going on, that we speak the language of snackers. We focused on the ‘-ie’ in Twinkies, which led to ‘speakie snackie.’ It’s an earworm, it’s sticky, it can punch above its weight.”

The new work comes a few months after Hostess packaging was updated to appeal to younger consumers with a brighter, simplified color palette and rounded font.

Hostess sales have been sluggish, according to company earnings. The sweet-baked snack category has been impacted by inflation-pinched consumers who are watching their spending, Mark Smucker, Smucker’s CEO and president, told analysts during a Feb. 27 call. He added that the Hostess brand is “not performing with excellence from a distribution, merchandising and competitive standpoint.”

Timely advertising — including 4/20

The goal of the new campaign is to reach a wider audience.

“In the past, our core audience was convenience-store males and millennial parents,” Hollander said. “They didn’t overlap, but shared a passion and pension for sweet snacks. So we broadened the audience to all sweet snackers, which gave us more people to talk to.”

The “Speakie Snackie” ads will run on online video, social media and radio. Hollander noted that Hostess is also partnering with Spotify, which is helping the brand optimize audio ads based on consumers’ location and time of day.

“Ads will change if you are in your car or near a grocery store,” Hollander said. “We also know that cravings become stronger in the afternoon, specifically 2:41 p.m., so we’ll make sure we are serving up communications then.”

The new campaign will also include a Munchie Mobile pop-up for 4/20. The company did not provide details on the experiential marketing effort and is still determining the exact locations for the activation. In recent years, brands of all kinds have leaned into the cannabis holiday as marijuana becomes more mainstream.

“It’s another playful example of bringing the brand into cultural moments,” Hollander said. “We are not playing in weed culture, just making sure we are there. We will be parked outside dispensaries and visitors will have to ‘speakie snackie’ to get a snack.”