• by Steve McClellan  @mp_mcclellan, October 15, 2013

Englewood, NJ-based snack food company Popcorn, Indiana is launching its first-ever national advertising and marketing campaign. It’s entitled “What Fun Tastes Like.”  

Agencies Horizon Media, Design & Acquisition and Formula PR helped put together the campaign, the first leg of which kicks off in New York this week. The national rollout commences in 2014. The company has earmarked $6 million for the fourth quarter 2013 leg of the campaign.

The multi-platform initiative encompasses national print, online, and digital display advertising, social media activations and guerilla sampling efforts. The sampling forays will include a truck wrapped in “What Fun Tastes Like” messaging that will travel to certain key target markets including Chicago and San Francisco.

“We are excited to kick off our first-ever national marketing campaign with our hometown market in the New York Metro area,” said Hitesh Hajarnavis, president and CEO of Popcorn, Indiana.  “This campaign will let even more folks know that there is nothing more fun and delicious than eating our popcorn.”

In New York a big piece of the campaign will be focused on “take overs” of major transit hubs and high-traffic areas including Grand Central, Penn Station, Columbus Circle and Bryant Park.

Through the fourth quarter the campaign plans to generate 24 million impressions with so-called subway “station dominations.”  The effort will include 100 OOH digital screens throughout the city.  After New York, Chicago and San Francisco will be the targets of “station domination” campaigns.

Websites utilized in the national campaign will include numerous pop culture, lifestyle and entertainment sites such as People.com, Billboard, Travel Channel, and Entertainment Weekly.

Popcorn, Indiana, currently the 54th snack brand in the country hopes the campaign will help it grab a bigger share of the ready-to-eat popcorn sales market, currently valued at close to $500 million, per the company. The company, which says it is “closing in on” $100 million in annual sales, has distribution at retailers such as Whole Foods, Wal-Mart and Rite Aid.

Brands include Kettlecorn, Aged White Cheddar Popcorn, Movie Theater Popcorn, Touch of Sea Salt, FIT, a new low-fat line of ready-to-eat popcorn, and a portfolio of Drizzlecorn and Caramel Popcorn flavors. P