• by Karlene Lukovitz  @KLmarketdaily, October 6, 2015

With Goodnessknows snack bars completing their national retail rollout this month, Mars Chocolate North America has kicked off a national launch campaign spanning TV, print, digital, social and sampling.  

The campaign's scope reflects the importance to the confections company of this entry into the rapidly growing "chocolate for snacking" and food bar segments. Food bar sales grew 8%, to $7.3 billion, in 2014, according to Packaged Facts. And while General Mills, Kellogg and Clif Bar & Co. lead the overall snack bars category, Goodnessknows — along with rival Hershey Company's new Brookside Fruit & Nut Bars — look to be going after Kind Bars, which increased their share by nearly two percentage points last year, to 4.9%, according to Euromonitor International.

Goodnessknows bars, available in three flavors and taglined "Try a little goodness," offer whole nuts, fruit and toasted oats in dark chocolate. The differentiators being promoted by Mars include the products' physical format — each bar is divided into four squares with about 40 calories each, to enable easy portion control — and the 100 milligrams of naturally occurring cocoa flavanols (shown to support the circulatory system) in each serving.  

The campaign, from BBDO San Francisco, includes three print ads and six 15-second TV spots themed "A little goodness is the beginning of greatness." 

The spots' creative approach is based on research showing that the core target audience, Millennials, relate to the message that amid the pressure to achieve, the most important thing is to try, reports Berta De Pablos-Barbier, VP, marketing at Mars Chocolate North America. "The campaign celebrates the choice or decision to better yourself," she tells Marketing Daily.

The spots, which are equally divided between male and female protagonists, offer quick, humorous takes on attempting to better oneself, including guys trying to take up weight lifting, the guitar and serious biking, and women trying cardio boxing, knitting (shown above) and getting in 10,000 steps per day (video below). 

The multiple, 15-second ads are digital-friendly and offer variety, and their subject matter enables targeting to relevant programming, notes Pablos-Barbier. Starting Oct. 5, they will be seen during shows including “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” “Blacklist,” “The Simpsons” and “Modern Family,” among many others.

The spots drew between 10,000 to 20,000 views each in their first day on a dedicated Goodnessknows YouTube page, with "Steps" (which includes an office pratfall) pulling the largest number.

The videos will be used in banner and pre-roll digital advertising, as well as the brand's social media efforts, which employ a #TryALittleGoodness hashtag.

Sampling is being conducted on college campuses (through a partnership with Barnes & Noble), city festivals, fitness and well-being events and other venues.

Prior to the national launch, Goodnessknows was tested extensively, starting with its introduction in 2010 in Denver and Boulder, and expanding to Seattle, Portland and Dallas. Repeat sales rates reached 41% in some markets, significantly exceeding expectations, confirms Pablos-Barbier.

Mars has been supporting the U.S. Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee's recommendations that daily sugar consumption should be limited to 10% of total calories, and that added sugars be broken out on the Nutrition Facts label, as part of its "long-term commitment to health and well-being," according to the company.

The Goodnessknows products contain a total of 12 grams of sugar per serving, much of which is naturally occurring in the fruit, as opposed to "added."

Other Mars brands positioned as offering healthier snacking alternatives include Marathon energy bars and protein bars and Real Fruit Dipped in Dove.