Mentos recently reworked the 2 most memorable expressions of its brand, updating its iconic jingle and bringing the soda geyser experiment to Fortnite. Both efforts speak to how marketers can tap into nostalgia to reach each longtime customers and younger generations.
The Perfetti Van Melle candy brand on April 1 relaunched the jingle across social, digital and audio streaming platforms iHeart Radio and YouTube Music. But as an alternative of the unique ads from the ‘90s that proved so memorable — if cheesy and spoofable — the brand tapped creators Adam Waheed, That’s a Bad Idea and Aubrey Gavello to make Mentos ads in their very own image.
“We wanted to be sure that that we revisited this iconic jingle, but make it just a little bit more relevant for today’s scenarios,” said Jen Redmond, gum and mints category director at Perfetti Van Melle. “It’s a fun way to reintroduce the catchy melody that many know and love and still remember, but in addition be sure that that it’s relevant for many who don’t remember it.”
Reaching old and latest consumers could help Mentos money in on a booming candy market that topped $54 billion in sales in 2024 and is forecast to exceed $70 billion by 2029, according to a National Confectioners Association report. Gum and mints saw 1.9% dollar sales growth in 2024, outpacing chocolate (0.4%) but behind non-chocolate candy (4.9%) in Circana-measured channels.
Instead of creating a pinstripe suit on a freshly painted bench, the influencer-created ads find absurdity around parking problems, office mishaps and housecleaning mistakes that would resonate more strongly with today’s consumers. Similarly, the following phase of the campaign, launching May 1, will update the jingle’s lyrics in ads featuring musical comedians Carter Vail and Kyle Gordon, the latter of whom has gone viral on TikTok along with his genre parodies. In each phases of the jingle relaunch, finding the fitting influencer partners was key.
“One of our most vital lenses when trying to find an influencer partner is ensuring that it’s the fitting fit for our brand and they’ll understand what we’re trying to communicate in an organic way to their very own platform, to their very own audience,” Redmond said.
Introducing the Fizzooka
Reaching audiences on the platforms where they spend their time can also be the driving force behind Mentos’ Fortnite activation. The brand and agency BBH London last month created a custom rocket launcher inside gaming platform Fortnite Creative, turning the soda geyser related to the brand into the “Mentos Fizzooka.”
The item was dropped into popular maps which have a combined audience of a couple of million players per day, on average, updating an everlasting a part of the brand’s lore that continues to continue to exist in science experiments and social media clips.
“Similar to our jingle, it’s crazy how many individuals still do the Mentos-Diet Coke experiment,” Redmond said. “We wanted to take that iconic experiment that others are still doing today, leverage that, but in addition try to connect with the Gen Z audience. We know Gen Z: Gaming is life for lots of them.”
The Mentos Fizzooka — an activation created independently from Fortnite maker Epic Games — demonstrates how marketers proceed to look for tactics to bring their brands to life in gaming platforms. The activation gives Perfetti Van Melle some control over an increasingly unsettled media world and economic landscape, whether facing the delayed ban of TikTok or the impact of the Trump tariff regime.
“Staying nimble is significant. We have to just control what’s inside our control. Any form of good marketer goes to have some contingency plans,” Redmond explained. “Given today’s environment, at all times keeping the buyer in mind first, and what they’re doing and being where they’re at goes to be essential. If something becomes not available, there’s going to be other ways we’re going to have a look at how we are able to reach our consumers.”
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