For candy SMEs whose ad campaigns can’t stretch to a Superbowl ad or YouTuber-backed social media blitz, there is one tactic that’s emerging as a great way to achieve cut-through in a saturated and sophisticated confectionery market: freakification.
Stand-out SKUs that garner column inches and pique consumers' desire for novelty can boost both brand awareness and sales.
A case in point, is the news this week that General Mill’s iconic Progresso brand has launched a range of chicken noodle soup-flavoured hard candy.
Don’t get too excited if you’re eager to suck some soup – the range sold out within days of its Jan 16 launch.
“When you’re sick, nothing is truly more reassuring than chicken noodle soup. So, we thought, why stop at the soup bowl?” said MC Comings, VP, business unit director for Progresso at General Mills presumably without irony. While consumers eagerly anticipate the next drop, here’s a description of what they are missing: the familiar flavours of broth, savoury vegetables, chicken, soft egg noodles and a hint of parsley. While it’s clearly not a serious pivot into candy making for the brand, it’s an inspired way to remind lapsed Progresso consumers that the soup brand brings comfort in a can come cold and flu season.
It’s a tactic confectioners can deploy too. Take the weird Willy Wonka-ish flavours sold by Seattle-based candy and toy company Archie McPhee whose strapline is ‘we make weird’. Boiled sweets and candy canes in flavours such as fried chicken, ketchup, pizza, hot dog and pickle illustrate its commitment to novelty that has given the small firm an outsize impact online.
More significantly-sized CPGs have made freakification part of their strategy too. Jelly Belly has embraced its weird side for years through the Beanboozled range which sees bags of the usual flavoured jelly beans mixed with lookalike beans with horrifying flavours such as this years' burnt rubber, old bandage, liver & onions and barf.
But the freakification trend doesn’t have to be about grossing out your consumers. Get the formulation right and you could find yourself with an unexpected hit. That has been the experience of Iowa-based chocolatier, Chocolate Storybook, whose freaky flavour is no joke. Hickory-smoked bacon wrapped in milk chocolate is sold as the Muddy Pigs SKU for $35 and has been part of the firm’s core collection for years giving it a highly marketable USP among other artisan chocolatiers.
Other weird and wonderful new product launches
Wild Thingz
The UK brand dropped its collection of quirky gummies for children on January 7, 2025. Founded by ex-Mondelēz executive Fliss Newland, Wild Thingz aims to deliver joy without junk by formulating its sweet products with no artificial ingredients and creating them in bold flavours and unusual shapes.
Designed to deliver a flavourful and functional offering, Wild Thingz has developed insect-themed confectionery, including Lemon Maggots, Cherry Spiders, Red Apple Butterflies, Blackcurrant Ladybirds and Cola Snails.
The Chocolate Smiths
The self-confessed home of the bizarre chocolate bar, British brand The Chocolate Smiths, launched in 2014, taking inspiration from famous desserts and complex flavour combinations.
The brand has developed its funky packaging and quirky flavours to attract broad appeal from creative confectionery consumers. Its flavours include Baklava Inspired What D’ Yee Want Wednesday Chocolate Bar, Pistachio Cannoli Inspired What D’Yee Want Wednesday Bar and a Salted Caramel Brownie Bizarre Bar.
TicTac invites consumers to choose the flavour
Along with launching a selection of new flavours that tap into the fruity, sour and nostalgic trends, Ferrero-owned Tic Tac asked its brand fans to vote in competitions to find the next limited-edition Tic Tac flavours.
For its choose your match campaign, which is rolled out across 25 countries, Tic Tac is giving consumers the opportunity to choose between five new limited edition flavours: citrus adventure, strawberry & cream, apple sour, intense mint and cherry.
Launched in October 2024, Tic Tac also announced a second voting competition, which will see consumers choose their next limited-edition Tic Tac flavour, across Tic Tac’s website and social media channels. Consumers can select from grape sour, dragon fruit, mango lime, ginger lemon and lemon sorbet. The flavour with the most votes globally will be announced in January 2025 and Ferrero will start production on the new limited edition SKU in spring 2025.
Hershey enters the flavour-changing space
In September 2024, The Hershey Company launched not one but two flavours in its one chewing gum SKU: a unique flavour-changing gum offering. The US giant developed its Ice Breakers’ Flavor Shifters gum in wildberry-to-coolmint and arctic grape-to-peppermint varieties.
Bebeto focuses on freeze-dried creations
It’s not only flavour that’s undergoing the Willy Wonka creative treatment; texture is too. Soft candy producer Bebeto unveiled its freeze-dried candy formulation in July 2024. Influenced by TikTok and the popularity of the freeze-dried craze, Bebeto aims to push the boundaries with its crunchy, flavourful Bebeto Freeze Crunchy treats.
