New York — Post Foods senior director of
marketing Tony Shurman said the company’s
Honey Bunches of Oats branded promotion
featuring Telemundo star Jencarlos
Canela on 4 million boxes far exceeded expectations.
Canela, though, said Post owes
at least half of the sales to his mother.
“I got home and I was like, ‘Mom, what is
this?’ Th ere were cereal boxes all over the
place … I asked her, ‘What are you going
to do with all these cereal boxes?’” Canela
joked during the “Using TV Superstars In
Branded Promotion” presentation at Multichannel
News and Broadcasting & Cable’s
ninth annual Hispanic Television Summit
here last week.
Featuring customized renditions of Canela’s music, inshow
integration and a sweepstakes to win a trip to Miami
for a private concert, the promotion boosted market share
for Post Foods’ Honey Bunches of Oats by more than 35%.
The sales lift helped the brand tie Honey Nut Cheerios as
the No. 1 cereal in the U.S. Hispanic market.
The promotion was called “Pensemos Positive” (Think Positively),
a message that was inspired by Canela himself. Shurman
recalled seeing Canela sign his name with the message,
and the promotion was a natural fit for both parties, given
that Honey Bunches of Oats “stands for positivity and optimism,”
he said.
Jencarlos said his message of positivity
is a fundamental tenet of his way of
life, adding that the “drama” prevalent in
Hispanic television is not typical of how
he lives. The star of Más sabe el diablo,
said the content on Hispanic television
isn’t “quite there yet” in its relatability to
younger viewers.
“As a young Hispanic-American —
frankly, sometimes you want to change
the channel. We don’t identify with that
much suffering,” Canela said. “There is
a little gap that needs to be closed. It’s
just about the content we’re producing.
We need to stay present — not only to the
generation of our parents, but tap into
the young generation.”
The campaign marks the first promotion of its kind for Post
Foods. The Hispanic market has not been the brand’s target
demo (Post targets women 25-49), so the promotion was “a
little bit risky,” Shurman said. He mentioned that although
the Hispanic consumer isn’t a key demographic, Post consistently
overindexes in the Hispanic market.
“This was a huge part of our plan this year, and we will
continue to invest in the Hispanic opportunities … It’s a
growing percentage,” Shurman said of Post’s Hispanic ad
spending.
