• by Sarah Mahoney , Staff Writer, 8 hours ago

Moving from the potato-chip aisle into collectibles may seem like an odd choice, but for Pringles, mystery boxes, Pringamabobs and an active online marketplace are all helping it connect with young snackers differently. And it’s paying off: Pringles, Kellanova’s largest global brand, continues to gain share even as rival snack makers lose sales to cheaper private labels or “better-for-you” options.

Diane Sayler, senior director of full-funnel marketing for Kellanova’s salty brands, tells CPG Insider how those tiny yellow toys tap into Gen Z’s growing “little treat” culture.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

CPG Insider: Pringles is gaining share globally at a time when many salty snacks are losing volume. What’s driving that momentum right now?

Diane Sayler: Despite macroeconomic factors or personal choices, snacking still holds a place in consumers’ lives, especially for Gen Z. We want to be a preferred brand for them. With our new campaign, as well as the heritage the brand has built, we have an emotional connection and a relevance that help us get into the cart. We want to continue to expand that with this campaign.

CPG Insider: Gen Z is snacking constantly, but you say it’s more than hunger — it’s a lifestyle shift. What’s behind that behavior?

Sayler: They’ve surpassed other generations. About eight in 10 Gen Z adults are snackers. This is a generation that’s been on the go and tech-enabled for their whole lives. They’ve grown up in a world where their parents can DoorDash snacks to the house, so they have that sense of instant demand: I’m craving it, so I’m going to buy it now.

CPG Insider: This activation taps into Gen Z’s love of analog fun: blind boxes, keychains, ’90s references. Why does that nostalgia resonate with a generation that didn’t live through it?

Sayler: It’s this idea of unexpected fun. Consumers spend one to three seconds with us, if we’re lucky. How do we bring a very quick hit of our brand, our personality and our flavor to life?

So we built this campaign to mirror today’s internet culture. It’s these quick hits — this little moment where you’re treating yourself to a bit of a scroll, watching a video. And the idea of “Once you pop, the pop don’t stop” is very open. We’re now in the second month of launch, and we’re harnessing that line for little treat culture and collectibles.

CPG Insider: You brought back Pringles’ iconic ’90s tagline. How did you update “Once you pop” so it feels fresh rather than purely retro?

Sayler: Older members of Gen Z grew up with it, and their parents certainly did. We found that about 70% of consumers are still familiar with the tagline, and more than half of them associate it with Pringles. So we knew we had rich territory to play in — it was about refreshing how it shows up, not starting from scratch.

CPG Insider: From TikTok unboxings to creator-style low-fi content, how do you break through in feeds where people increasingly resent ads?

Sayler: It’s the way the campaign shows up. In the high-fi creative, you're seeing an actual guy on a date. He's on a park bench, and he does the duck lips. It's done in a very fresh way – not the happy smiling people you might have seen in the ‘90s. It feels like a real-life situation. We’ve adapted that for our low-fi content, too, including Instagram.

That’s the place we feel we can earn organic, viral conversation. It’s built to get more than that one second: that’s where people are learning about our characters, watching how influencers respond to the drops and the mystery boxes.

We know where we can have a longer conversation and where we have to keep it really tight. The unboxing trend is so widespread, and we feel we do it in a way that doesn’t feel like an ad. And we love that our first drops sold out so quickly, and people are swapping the characters online.

CPG Insider: Flavor experimentation has always defined Pringles. How is Gen Z changing the way you think about innovation — and where do you draw the line between bold and “too far”?

Sayler: With the unboxing effort, people get a double hit — the collectible and the food. It leans into that kid-dulting idea. They like experimentation, and trying to guess what the flavor is: What flavor did I get? What did my friends get?

But they also love the old favorites. So we have to do both, and ideally, they’re picking up more than one can in the process. It’s hard to beat sour cream and onion. It’s a top flavor for us — familiar, and it always hits. Our job is to bring news and excitement to the aisle without losing those core flavors people come back to.