Hershey, Nestlé Bow New Treats

Nestlé USA and Hershey Corp. are readying new candies for summer—some with familiar brand names, and some new.

Nestlé bows Donutz candy on May 23 with a tie-in to Warner Bros.’ Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, opening July 15. The in-pack sweeps borrows from the storyline (where Willie Wonka hides five golden tickets in candy bars, giving five children a tour of his candy factory). Nestlé’s sweeps will seed gamepieces in packages of Donutz, and award one grand-prize trip to Dusseldorf, Germany. The sweeps runs through August with TV, print and on-pack support. The candy—donut-shaped chocolates with cream chocolate filling and sprinkles—also gets display support through yearend and is featured in Nestlé’s WONKAmobile tour.

Nestlé launches Wonka
Donutz with a sweeps

Separately, Nestlé will launch Tollhouse Swirled Morsels in June with TV and FSI support. There are three flavors: milk chocolate with caramel, semi-sweet and white chocolate, and milk chocolate with peanut butter.

Meanwhile, Hershey recently broke TV ads for Hershey Cookies, which bowed in December. Four varieties of chocolate-covered cookies leverage existing brand names: Hershey’s, Reese’s, Almond Joy and York. Single-serve packs have four cookies and sell for 99 cents; 7-oz. take-home packages have 14 cookies and sell for about $3. Promotional support, including in-store sampling and P-O-P, began in December with heavy support in convenience stores.

Reese’s lovers get four
flavors to choose from

Hershey also will market Limited Edition versions of its top-selling brands throughout the year. Reese’s gets at least four versions: Peanut Butter Lovers and Chocolate Lovers (out now), Fudge, and Reese’s Big Cup, with nuts. Flagship Hershey’s chocolate bar will come in double chocolate, cookies ‘n mint and white chocolate with almonds. York patties, Almond Joy and Kit Kat get chocolate renditions; Kit Kat also gets a mint version.

Reese’s Peanut Butter Lovers and Chocolate Lovers rolled out in late March with a Great Reese’s Limited Edition Vote! on-pack sweepstakes. Packages flagged with a “Taste, Vote and Win!” burst send consumers to Reeses.com to vote for their favorite; each vote doubles as a sweeps entry. Top prize is a trip for four to Hershey, PA; 5,000 winners get a Reese’s Limited Edition T-shirt. The sweeps runs through September.

Last week Hershey ran a one-day sampling blitz for its new Take 5 candy bar, which bowed nationally in April. Hershey gave away five million samples in 35 markets and online (500,000 coupons for free bars, via ePrize).