• by Sarah Mahoney  @mahoney_sarah, August 12, 2024

Pop-Tart thinks it has a wacky way to add some sprinkles to any end-of-summer soiree: A Pop-Tart Party Pastry built to serve dozens of guests.

Since Pop-Tart’s outsize success with its Edible Mascot (and giant toaster) effort last football season, the company’s marketing team has been cooking up new ways to go big with the breakfast pastry brand.

Kellanova says the limited-edition beast of a pastry, available in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago, sold out in just four minutes, inspiring the company to come up with a second drop. The iced behemoth has strawberry filling and fits into the company’s “Crazy Good” brand positioning. It can be customized with any message delivered right to fans' doorsteps in a three-foot-tall box that mirrors the brand's traditional packaging. It’s priced at $60, reflecting the brand’s 60^th birthday.

“With the belief that any reason is a good reason to celebrate, we wanted to give our fans something big to center their end-of-summer celebrations around,” says Heidi Ray, Pop-Tarts senior director of marketing, tells Marketing Daily via email. “It's a symbol that encourages fans to embrace the nostalgic freedom of summers past during joyful moments that matter today.”

She says the goal is to keep building on the “larger than life” brand momentum the company has cultivated over the last few years. “We have no plans to take our foot off the (cultural) gas! From the viral success of last year's Pop-Tarts Bowl and the unveiling of the beloved Pop-Tarts mascot to our agile #ReleaseTheRecipe campaign inspired by the world’s biggest pop star to the launching of our biggest innovation in years, Crunchy Poppers, to our work with UNFROSTED, the Party Pastry is just the latest of the Crazy Good moments we have in store for the year.”

In addition to traditional press outreach and social promotion on brand channels, she says the company also surprised influencers and celebs with their own Party Pastry. And partnerships with such food outlets as AllRecipes, Food & Wine and Foodbeast led to them sharing their IRL experience on social media.