Space themed kids’ sweets
European licensed character confectionery company, Bon Bon Buddies, is launching its latest own-brand kids’ confectionery product range that is being backed by the company’s largest ever consumer marketing campaign.
With a strong space theme, Nanobytes are little round sweets that have a crunchy shell and are chewy on the inside. They are being launched to the trade during August across UK, Europe and Middle East markets, with a view to a full consumer roll out from September onwards.
The range initially features three flavours – Strawberry, Bubblegum and Cola – available in both a 25g ‘treat-sized’ pack format as well as a 65g, re-sealable metallic ‘space pack’ format. The products are all gluten-free, suitable for vegetarians and GMO free, with recommended retail prices starting from £0.25 for the 25g pack and £0.69p for the 65g pack.
Samples are currently flying out to trade customers across all territories and followed up with a programme of distribution meetings. A number of stockists have already signed up, including Amazon, The Factory Shop, The Works, Savers, Dhamecha, Parfetts, Filshill, Bonds, Booker, Appletons, D&D, Shelton and Buzz Confectionary.
The consumer marketing campaign behind Nanobytes will focus heavily on online and social media activity with a Facebook page and Twitter feed . It will also be supported by a consumer-focused website that features interactive games, downloads, competitions, videos, apps and a host of other fun and space-related content.
The Nanobytes App will be available for smart-phones on Apple and Android platforms to encourage fans to share content and build the brand presence, while a brand video about the backstory will be shared via YouTube. There will also be consumer sampling activity across all territories to support raising brand awareness.
Managing director of Bon Bon Buddies, Chris Howarth, is excited about the company’s latest and biggest-ever own-brand product launch. He said: “Our market analysis shows that this type of confectionery has a strong opportunity in the UK and our other international markets.
“We’ve had an extremely positive response to the product so far from the trade, with a number of high-profile stockists already snapping it up, and we hope consumers will be just as excited when it hits the shelves.
“We believe that the combination of a strikingly vibrant re-sealable pack that is highly practical, alongside bold POS, eye-catching branding and an engaging online consumer marketing campaign, will help Nanobytes to establish a strong market share across all the territories and ultimately grow the children’s confectionery product category as a whole.
“We’ve developed a re-sealable pack format for the 65g version, which we believe will be a strong point of differentiation from existing brands and work especially well with this product, while our space theme will resonate with consumers across a wide age spectrum.”
This is the second major own-brand product launch that Bon Bon Buddies has developed for the ‘everyday’ children’s confectionery sector in the last few years. It also launched its mega-sour sweets brand ‘Brainblasterz’ in 2011.
Bon Bon Buddies was established in 1993 and now provides character confectionery to 40 countries worldwide, with eight dedicated European sales and logistics facilities with further distribution in Central Eastern Europe, Italy, Russia, China, UAE and Turkey. It recently won the Queen’s Award for Enterprise for International trade in recognition of its outstanding achievement in innovation, international trade and sustainable development.