Brands on Fire: GoGo Squeez CMO on Marketing to a Young Adult Demographic
GoGo Squeez, a blended fruit product consumed from a pouch, is known to most as a toddler’s snack. But Mark Anthony Edmonson, Chief Marketing Officer at parent company Materne North America, saw an opportunity to age up the product with a new video campaign, design, product line and brand perception targeting teens and young adults.
“People perceive us, because we’re in the format of a pouch, as a snack that’s intended for a much younger demographic,” Edmonson told us. “We’re helping consumers understand the main reasons why we were developed. We’re on-the-go, easy to consume, and we still provide the nutrients that you need for your daily activities. So with that perception, with that challenge, we’ve had to change a few things.”
We spoke with Edmonson about the marketing vision behind the campaign—from consumer insights to influencer strategy to sustainability initiatives—as well as his thoughts on what it takes to reach the C-suite.
CM: What’s the impetus behind the latest GoGo Squeez campaign? How did you choose the talent?
Mark Anthony Edmonson, Chief Marketing Officer at Materne North America: Our new [overall] campaign, the Fundamentals, focuses on the joy of sports and activities, instead of the seriousness of social pressures that way down athletes. We have a 30-second spot that features original music Canadian rapper and actor, Connor Price. It reminds viewers of what made them fall in love with sports and how to keep the fun going.
The reason why we decided to launch the Break It Forward campaign with breakdancer Logan Edra is because we’re excited to encourage more people to experience breaking. We’ll be partnering with over a dozen influencers around the world, starting with Logan, to showcase their breaking on social and encourage others to try out new moves. Fans can also join in on the excitement around the sport by following GoGo Squeez to see Logan and other global breakers highlight the unique innovation and creativity of breaking.
CM: What are the campaign’s strategic marketing goals?
MAE: We are looking to grow our brand beyond just being a kids’ snack. So we’re thrilled to introduce this campaign with Logan to reach different consumers through the GoGo Squeez Active with Electrolytes. We created this product because we learned that consumers—young adults, teens—were still consuming GoGo Squeez, but not as often as our core base consumer—households with kids under the age of 12.
Through a lot of research online looking at why these teens and young adults were consuming GoGo Squeez, [we learned] most of them were going on hikes, biking with us, going on swimming courses. So we decided to create a product uniquely for teens and young adults: GoGo Squeez Active Fruit Blend with Electrolytes. It’s a refreshing snack that helps replenish some of the minerals lost through sweat during physical activities.
Our core KPI for this initiative is penetrating new households. We want to regain the households that we lost as kids grew up, beyond the age of 12, and entering those households with a product specifically designed for them. We believe that that can actually help age up our brand and get more consumers to use our products.
CM: What are the challenges of targeting this new demo, given that your product is typically consumed by young children?
MAE: The biggest challenge is perception. We are perceived as a toddler snack—or that’s most people say. But we are not. We were designed for kids ages six-plus. If you look at the industry of pouch food, they primarily are going after toddlers. But what we need to do, and what we’re attempting to do, is overcome that barrier. People perceive us, because we’re in the format of a pouch, as a snack that’s intended for a much younger demographic. We’re helping consumers understand the main reasons why we were developed. We’re on-the-go, easy to consume, and we still provide the nutrients that you need for your daily activities. So with that perception, with that challenge, we’ve had to change a few things.
The first thing we had to do was get adults to start consuming the product. And with that comes a different ritual. If you look at how kids consume our product, they’re typically holding their heads down and sucking directly from the pouch. Through a lot of our research, and even watching young adults consume our product, we learned that we needed to quickly change the ritual of consumption, and that could actually help accelerate us to being beyond just a kids’ snack. So, just simply holding the pouch and squeezing out the goodness into your mouth versus sucking. It’s just an easier way to think about the brand. We’re GoGo Squeez, but then also just squeezing great nutrients and food into your system.
The only other thing that we need to change: the perception of applesauce. If you look at how we are defined by the FDA, we are more than just applesauce. We’re a fruit blend snack. Our texture is a little bit different than applesauce, making us almost like a smoothie blend. Making sure that consumers understand the format, and the reason behind the format, but then also how we’re delivering the fruit, would help us overcome some of the barriers of perception.
CM: So since you’re trying to change the ritual, video coupled with very popular influencers in the right demo is an attempt to influence behavior.
MAE: Absolutely. We needed to reach our audience, and we felt that video along with influencers—we have a significant amount of influencers driving this campaign—was going to be critical. Partnering with a breakdancer was a way for us to break through a lot of the clutter in the marketplace. We wanted to differentiate ourselves versus other like products. Our partner, breaker Logan Edra, is a world renowned professional B girl and she’s constantly on the move to redefine what it means to be active. And with breakdancing poised to be the “it” sport of the summer, we saw it as a great opportunity and partnership to support the excitement, art and fun of breakdancing.
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CM: Tell me about the research and consumer insights that informed this new direction.
MAE: We started with listening to our consumer. The main critical pieces of research that we looked into was the consumers who were already purchasing our brand, and that demographic—teens and young adults. Through all of our research, they were purchasing our product to remain active. It was part of their active lifestyles. They loved the fact that we were delivering fruit. We also have a portfolio that’s fruit and vegetable, and it’s portable, easy and on-the-go, so you don’t have to do a lot of work with it. You just twist the cap and you consume the product. It’s no mess.
We then needed to figure out quickly: how do we get more people like these active consumers to see GoGo Squeez as their solution? And that’s where we did some in-depth studies with them to understand things like texture and flavor. You’ll find that GoGo Squeez Active Fruit Blend with Electrolytes has a different flavor profile versus our current. You’ll find more citrus tone in this product that’s delivering a more aged-up eating experience that is not similar to our base product. And then finally, our graphics. We’ve modernized our logo. We’ve brought in this fun element of sport energy to the graphic design that’s speaking to this active consumer.
CM: How are you incorporating sustainability into your marketing?
MAE: Sustainability, for us, is critical to our DNA. And while we’re in a single-use plastic, we look for all the ways to bring that plastic back. We’ve partnered with TerraCycle, an organization that allows us to have drop-off stations. Consumers can go to our website and download forms to be able to send our pouches back to be recycled and turned into other helpful material in the future. But in addition to helping ensure that we’re protecting our environment, we’re also doing a lot within the community. We have a significant amount of relationships with nutritionists and dieticians to be able to talk about health nutrition with kids and families. We also partner with sports nutritionists to be able to help those individuals talk to their clients about what’s needed with an active diet.
And then finally, accessibility. We’ve been doing a lot of work to ensure that our product is accessible, especially during this economic environment. We’ve partnered with a program called WIC, [a supplemental low-income nutrition program] for Women, Infants and Children. Close to 30 different states have this program available. Consumers that participate in WIC can purchase GoGo Squeez, leveraging their WIC benefits. WIC also does a fantastic job educating consumers on the nutritional benefits that their kids need to live a [healthy] lifestyle.
CM: How are you delivering this campaign to consumers? Do you have a plan for each demo you’re hitting?
MAE: We have two different work streams happening. We have a work stream that is all about identifying the right influencers, with a dual goal of attracting both teens and young adults. We do know that teens look up to young adults, so a lot of our tactics are going after that young adult, leveraging influencers that teens look up to, allowing us to tap into both of those targets. But then in addition to that, we have a lot of different plan activity going into the communities, whether it’s sitting in spaces like marathons, which typically target more young adults, or going to high school football games or other sporting occasions that can tap into that teen audience. We’re trying to be as local as possible to bring our messaging to life.
CM: Lastly, what would be your advice to marketers who are looking to climb the ladder and reach the C-suite?
MAE: My biggest advice is to take risk. I find that a lot of us stick to what’s normal or what’s traditional from a marketing standpoint, but taking risk can allow you to see things in a different perspective. I will say that I took a risk earlier in my career, ensuring that I did all things digitally-first. I grew up at P&G, which allowed me to have one of the best marketing educations that I’ve ever had in my career. But I leaned heavily into digital. A lot of people back in that day did not believe in the internet and what it could provide. So taking that risk and learning the space, and how to best leverage the space, allowed me to open up doors to becoming head of commerce at different organizations. I was able to stretch myself outside of marketing, but then also be a subject matter expert in the space that is truly growing and delivering against consumers expectations.
