Mars signals new era for confectionery with bold launches and digital focus

Mars strategy summary

• Mars shifts confectionery innovation towards flavours formats textures and experiences
• New launches target multiple snacking occasions across confectionery and snacks
• Digital Store Labs aim to unlock online impulse purchasing growth
• Strategy blurs boundaries between confectionery, snacking, and better-for-you products
• Mars actions raise innovation expectations for brands, retailers, and omnichannel merchandising

The world’s biggest confectionery company, Mars, Inc. is shaking things up with a wave of new confectionery and snacking innovations.

Why?

“To win every snacking occasion, online and in-store”.

In other words, the maker of big-name brands like Snickers, Twix, Mars and Skittles, is the industry leader and wants to keep it that way.

“We call ourselves consumer obsessed,” says Tim LeBel, chief customer officer of Mars Snacking North America. “We know what they want, where they discover their new favorites and how they buy.”

This, says LeBel, gives Mars an “unparalleled understanding of the modern consumer” and it seems it’s used this understanding to switch innovation strategies, with new flavours, formats and textures dominating the confectionery giant’s latest launches.

But it isn’t just about creating new products. Mars is using innovation to drive the whole industry forward.

Industry shift

“As a powerhouse leader in snacking, we’re pushing the boundaries by blending functionality and global flavour inspiration with new formats and textures,” says Jessica Waller, SVP of Mars Snacking Away From Home. “These innovations help our customers and partners drive growth by meeting consumer demand.”

This strategy is reflected across the Mars portfolio. From freeze-dried formats and portable packaging to new flavour combinations, brands across the Mars portfolio are getting a makeover.

The latest launches include:

• M&M’s POP’d Caramel: The brand’s first freeze-dried sweets featuring the classic caramel flavour in a crispy texture
• Twix Bits: A bite-sized twist on the brand’s Twix bars
• Skittles Gummies Fuego: A “swicy” (sweet + spicy) twist on the chewy sweets
• Starburst Sour: As you might expect, these are sour starburst
• Sours by Extra: Sweet and sour flavoured chewing gum is definitely unusual - we’ll wait to see how consumers react to this particular iteration
• 5 Gum Evolution: Perhaps the most experimental launch of the line-up, flavour-changing experience from tangy sour to sweet berry
• RXBar Protein Energy Bites: Available in a range of flavours, including Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter, these have a chewy outer layer and a creamy filling. Moreover, they’re made using only a handful of ingredients, tapping into the fast-growing better-for-you snacking trend.

While not all formats are guaranteed to resonate, this willingness to experiment reflects a broader industry move towards novelty and differentiated sensory experiences.

Driving online sales

Beyond the consumer‑insight‑led innovations, Mars is also collaborating with retailers to evolve impulse shopping online through its Mars Digital Store Labs.

The Labs are designed to help retailers recreate the spontaneity of in‑store impulse in digital environments, using data, placement and shopper behaviour insights to prompt last‑minute basket additions and improve product discoverability.

“Impulse categories like confectionery often remain underdeveloped online, even as digital commerce continues to grow,” says LeBel. By driving online impulse buying forward in and boosting retailers and manufacturer collaboration, the multinational hopes to “unlock potential growth.”

A new era for confectionery

These new innovations signal a definite shift in Mars’ strategy – moving beyond traditional product pipelines to a more agile, insight-led model where novelty, functionality and experience are just as important as brand heritage.

By bringing together new flavours, formats, and textures, the confectionery giant is changing how and when consumers engage with its brands.

Crucially, its investment in digital impulse shows it’s not just innovating on the shelf, but redefining how confectionery is discovered and purchased in an increasingly omnichannel world.

For the wider confectionery industry, these moves are significant. Mars is effectively resetting the bar for innovation, pushing competitors to think beyond incremental flavour extensions, towards multisensory, cross-category and digitally enabled experiences.

Moreover the convergence of confectionery with snacking spaces – protein bites, functional formats, novel textures – will likely accelerate, blurring traditional category boundaries.

At the same time, the focus on online impulse could reshape retail strategies across the industry, forcing brands and retailers to rethink merchandising for e-commerce environments.

In short, Mars isn’t just defending its leadership position, it’s actively reshaping what the industry looks like. And for the confectionery sector, keeping pace will mean embracing faster innovation cycles, deeper consumer insights, and a far more integrated view of where, how and why people snack.