Male Gen-Z, Millennial Opps: Sour Patch Kids teams up with Twitch creators for new campaign

Sour Patch Kids (SPK)'s newest campaign marks a return to Twitch; the brand teamed up with four creators for the initiative. Each Twitch star - Athena, GernaderJake, JonSandman and Rizzo - will be the face of a candy flavor, announcing each in two-hour solo live streams. Each flavor's packaging bears a Twitch creator's face, so fans will vote for their favorite flavors online. In the end, all four creators will team up for a "Squad Stream" in which they'll compete in a game of Rocket League. This campaign will activate around gaming and allow SPK to receive valuable first-party data through the contest and limited-edition boxes of candy. The brand will launch additional events throughout the rest of June and July. Sellers should contact soon to secure last-minute ad dollars from this new SPK initiative.

This is the brand's second major Twitch effort; last year's limited-edition box featured creator TimTheTatman and ended up leading to thousands of box sales. If this new campaign goes well, I expect SPK to continue utilizing additional, similar Twitch brand sponsorships in the future.

So far this year, iSpot reports the candy brand has spent approximately $3.2m on national TV commercials, less than half of the approximately $6.5m spent within the same 2021 timeframe. SPK ended up spending approximately $7.8m on this channel last year, down 21% from the approximately $9.9m spent in 2020. The brand's 2022 commercials have primarily targeted Spanish-speaking audiences via shows such as NFL Football, Mi fortuna es amarte, La Rosa de Guadalupe, Exatlón Estados Unidos and Enamorándonos.

Per Pathmatics, SPK has allocated roughly $5.2m toward digital ads, about half of the roughly $10.3m allocated by this point last year. In 2021, the brand's estimated full-year spend, $17.4m, marked a 4% decrease from that of $18.2m in 2020. Since the beginning of 2021, SPK has earned ~596.1m digital impressions via Instagram (66%), desktop video (19%), Facebook (10%) and Twitter (4%) ads. 99% of this year's desktop video ads have been placed site direct onto youtube.com; the remaining 1% have been placed site direct onto Twitch.

These Twitch initiatives are designed to reach a wider audience of gamers, so sellers should contact sooner rather than later to offer high-ROI strategies among Gen-Z and millennial men. According to Kantar data, SPK also invests in print and local broadcast. It holds planning conversations in Q1 and buying conversations in Q4. Its TV commercials target both English- and Spanish-speaking audiences. 

Agency & martech readers - Consider reaching out to see if parent company Mondelez needs any project-based and/or brand-specific work. Spark Foundry handled media for this campaign. The SPK brand also works with creative AOR Ogilvy and receives assistance from David (creative), Campbell Ewald NY (creative) and VaynerMedia (digital and media planning).