• by Aaron Baar , September 20, 2010

Cream of Wheat is bringing the smells and tastes of Cinnabon home, with the release today of a co-branded version of the hot cereal.

"We've been looking for new opportunities to bring new and exciting things to breakfast," Jordan Greenberg, vice president of marketing at Cream of Wheat parent B&G Foods, tells Marketing Daily. "When we spoke to consumers, the Cinnabon flavor profile ranks very, very high."

The Cinnabon-flavored hot cereal marks the first time that Cream of Wheat has added another company's flavor profile to its signature hot cereal. (The company has previously had a licensing agreement with Nickelodeon's SpongeBob Squarepants character, but that didn't involve a specific flavor profile.) Although Cream of Wheat offers a "Cinnamon Swirl" flavor, the new product incorporates Cinnabon's cinnamon flavor, as well as the frosting used on its signature pastries.

"We're using the same cinnamon [blend] that they use in the rolls," Greenberg says. While Cinnabon has a branded cold cereal in the market, the hot cereal provides more of the overall "Cinnabon experience," he says.

"It gives off the smell of a Cinnabon," he says. "It's an exciting opportunity for them to get to a new audience with a new product and a hot cereal."

The company will promote the product with newspaper inserts and advertising, as well as handing out samples in markets where the company has significant product distribution, including New York City.

"The sampling is the most important part of it because it's a product that once you smell it and once you taste it, you're going to fall in love with the product," Greenberg says. "We're trying to forward it out to as many people as possible."

The company will also employ social networking to promote the product, blasting out free sample coupons and offers through its Facebook page and Twitter feeds -- a tactic the company used for its Healthy Grain product launch last year, Greenberg says.

"It's a good medium to get the word out to people and let them know that there's a new product on the shelf," Greenberg says.