Wrigley's prepares major marketing pushes across Extra and 5Gum brands

By Loulla-Mae Eleftheriou-Smith, marketingmagazine.co.uk, Saturday, 10 December 2011 09:55AM

Wrigley's, the chewing gum brand, is launching a long-term marketing offensive across its Extra and 5Gum variants, as marketing director Daniela Campari seeks to win teens back to the category.

5Gum Evolution: new Wrigley's product

Wrigley’s is launching a new flavour into its 5Gum range, which is targeted at the youth market. The new product, marketed under the name 5Evolution, will see the introduction of a sour-to-sweet citrus pear flavour. The gum changes flavour as it is chewed.

Campari, who was appointed in April this year, told Marketing that the 5Gum brand is based around its "opportunity for sharing", explaining that the range is seen by consumers as a "special gum" to share on certain occasions.

The new product launch will be supported by an extensive marketing campaign under the current 'What’s next' strapline, featuring consumer promotions across fashion, music, art, gaming and film categories, and the upcoming Playstation Vita portable gaming device. It will be supported by experiential activity across 10 UK universities targeting 300,000 students.

Digital activity will see the brand launch competitions through its dedicated Facebook page, while consumers will be able to play augmented reality games with products by downloading the Blippar app and scanning brand logos.

Campari said that teenage consumers of chewing gum have dropped by a third since 2007, which is what she is looking to address. She said that plans for 2012 will see Wrigley "putting the brand with the right consumer, at the right occasion, at the right time".

"We will be pushing the brand more on TV, more at the point of chew, which targets when you’re out having a snack, lunch or a cup of coffee, and we are working to get into more channels by pushing sampling activity."

Wrigley’s is also looking to expand its Wrigley’s Extra brand by introducing a new strawberry flavour into its range from January next year. The launch of the new variant follows the success of the Extra Ice White brand-extension last year, which Wrigley’s claims has helped to grow the overall Extra brand by more than £12m over the past year.

Wrigley aims to bring younger consumers into the category with the launch of the strawberry product, running extensive sampling activity at festivals across the UK. It will be supported by long-term point of sale and digital activity and heavily communicated through social media channels, with an emphasis on Facebook.

The new strawberry flavour will be marketed under the Extra brand’s current 'Eat. Drink. Chew' strapline, which promotes the brand’s oral care benefits to consumers.

The Extra brand is the biggest sugar-free chewing gum brand in the UK, worth £153m in sales. The gum category in the UK is worth £248.2m, of which Wrigley has an 89.3% share.

This article was first published on marketingmagazine.co.uk