“We made the mascots more of the centerpiece versus an auxiliary item. … We decided, ‘Let’s pour some more gas on that,’ ” Ray said of the brand’s plans for the most recent game, which included introducing three edible mascots and a functional toaster trophy. As a result, Pop-Tarts wanted to “triple down” their marketing […]
“We made the mascots more of the centerpiece versus an auxiliary item. … We decided, ‘Let’s pour some more gas on that,’ ” Ray said of the brand’s plans for the most recent game, which included introducing three edible mascots and a functional toaster trophy.
As a result, Pop-Tarts wanted to “triple down” their marketing strategy around the mascots in 2024, where Iowa State defeated Miami 42-41 at Orlando’s Camping World Stadium on Dec. 28.
Pop Tarts received the equivalent of .1 million in media value from 3 p.m. ET on Dec. 21 to 3 p.m. ET on Dec. 30, according to an analysis provided by Apex Marketing Group to Forbes. Brand exposure included mentions across television, radio, print, digital and social media.
Heidi Ray, senior director of marketing at Pop-Tarts, explained that the brand’s viral mascots “grabbed the imagination of the world and spawned 1,000 memes.” The creativity resulted in selling 21 million more Pop-Tarts in the eight weeks following the 2023 bowl game than the eight weeks prior, per Brand Manager Alex Sotiropoulos via Sports Business Journal’s Intercollegiate Athletics Forum in December.
For last month’s bowl game, Pop-Tarts refrained from featuring previously created brand advertising spots in the ABC broadcast, which experienced a 58% year-over-year increase in viewership compared with the 2023 game on ESPN. Instead, Ray and her team pivoted to create more custom bowl game content for television, including three to four training camp videos with the brand’s mascots.
Last December’s bowl game saw the highest brand search via Google search trends since at least 2008, per data cited by Pop-Tarts via Talk Walker, a third party social listening platform used by the brand. In addition, Pop-Tarts Bowl brand activations were the most talked about among all non College Football Playoff games based on both traditional earned media and social, per Talk Walker.
When asked if the brand will return to sponsor the bowl game in 2025, Ray said, “We’ve had way too much fun the past two years to stop now. More to come.”
Meanwhile, Ray briefly highlighted where the brand learned from its bowl game sponsorship. Pop-Tarts received several contracted in-game advertising spots on broadcast as part of its annual bowl commitment. Based on brand valuation work conducted by Nielsen Sports, executives learned after the 2023 game that “having a huge concentration of ad spots in a short time frame did less than we thought it was going to,” according to Ray.
“We listened to what fans love about the game and brought ideas that were bold and irreverent,” she added. “In a world where I think sometimes the work can get a little cautious, we were unafraid to truly be our crazy, good selves and not take ourselves too seriously.”
In 2023, Kellanova, the parent company of Pop-Tarts and other snack brands, rebranded the Orlando-based Cheez-It Bowl to the Pop-Tarts Bowl, complete with unveiling college football’s first edible mascot.
Over the past two years, Pop-Tarts has illustrated that there’s no marketing idea or creative gimmick too outrageous for the college football universe.
“They took all of the bowl game traditions and turned them on their ear,” said Bob Dorfman, a San Francisco-based veteran sports marketing expert, in an interview with Forbes. “Brands have an opportunity to maybe make fun of themselves a little bit but in a positive way, build brand equity and create a viral sensation around their brands.”
