DEERFIELD, Ill. -- Building on the success of its Oreo Twist Lick Dunk game, snack and candy company Mondelēz International is launching a new media monetization model that will include a suite of branded games with the aim of making them commercially viable. Sour Patch Kids will be the first brand to launch a mobile game later this year, with more brands following over the next 18 months.
The model follows the company's Shopper Futures innovation initiative, which brought together retailers, technology startups and its own "power brands" to collaborate with the goal of transforming the consumer retail experience. Convenience-store chains QuickChek, Mac's, Kum & Go and 7-Eleven created promotions with Mondelēz brands.
Mondelēz will focus on forming new media partnerships to acquire, develop and distribute content properties that will promote its core brands and generate revenue. The content creation model is part of the company’s strategy to accelerate growth by “distorting investments behind its higher-growth, higher-margin power brands,” it said.
The company intends this model to enable the company to make larger-scale investments behind its brands by creating “engaging and commercially viable” content leading to incremental revenue streams. The company’s goal is for up to 10% of its global media investments to break even or turn a profit by 2020.
“Capturing audience attention is more difficult than ever. As audiences become more empowered to control their viewing experience, the old model of interruptive advertising is rapidly becoming irrelevant,” said Laura Henderson, global head of content and media monetization at Mondelez. “This new approach will hold us to a higher standard of creating content that earns attention and is good enough to make money. By developing content that people want to watch, we can begin to monetize our investments, offsetting costs, improving return on investment and making our media spending more sustainable.”
The new media monetization model also will allow it to improve the return on investment of its global media spending.
“Make no mistake about it, this is the future of how brands and advertisers will connect with consumers and drive real growth,” said Bonin Bough, chief media and e-commerce officer at Mondelēz. “More importantly, this is how brands can continue to help elevate the ecosystem for all of their partners from broadcasters to publishers. This is a different model that is in service of the entire industry.”
As part of this new model, the company is announcing the creation of a collection of content properties across a variety of formats in film, television, digital and mobile platforms.
Along with the mobile game suite, the first three planned initiatives also include:
- Stride Gum Presents: Heaven Sent. On July 30, Stride gum will debut Heaven Sent, a live event where professional skydiver Luke Aikins will jump from a plane at 25,000 feet with nothing but the clothes on his back. The event will air exclusively in the United States on Fox. Mondelēz will make the event available across the globe through broadcast, online streaming and pay-per-view platforms.
The event is part of a national campaign to support Stride’s new “Mad Intense” gum that will launch in stores this summer, targeted to teens. The brand will feature a new look and positioning and will offer two new fruit flavors.
- BuzzFeed Partnership. This partnership will build content capabilities for Mondelēz’s portfolio of brands. The initiative will continue integrations like food and recipe content on platforms such as Tastym as well as new content programs for brands. It will include the co-creation of a new original content brand in the well-being area.
BuzzFeed is a cross-platform, global network for news and entertainment that generates six billion views each month. BuzzFeed creates and distributes content for a global audience and uses proprietary technology to test, learn and optimize.
Deerfield, Ill.-based Mondelēz is a global snacking company with 2015 net revenues of approximately $30 billion. It is a world leader in biscuits, chocolate, gum, candy and powdered beverages, with billion-dollar brands such as Oreo, LU and Nabisco biscuits; Cadbury, Cadbury Dairy Milk and Milka chocolate; and Trident gum.
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