There’s a new snack in town. General Mills has launched its Fibre 1 Cheesecake Bars in Canada.
The 150 calorie snack bars are available in chocolate and key lime flavours, and fall into the “healthier-for-you dessert alternative” category, attempting to broach the crowded snacking time-frame of early to late evening.
“The feedback we got from consumers was that this was a snack where rather than turning to a bag of potato chips, pretzels or ice cream in the evening, they could see pulling these out as a snack at home,” said Jason Doolan, director of marketing at General Mills.
While the bars have been available for over a month, General Mills made a major marketing push for the new product during National Cheesecake Day last month. The company celebrated the holiday with a literal “cake-walk” featuring six costumed mascots in the shape of the bars speed-walking around Toronto, handing out samples.
The cake-walk was “a memorable way to connect with our core audience, which of course are millenials,” Doolan said. “They value experiences more than any other cohort I’ve ever been involved with.”
Additional marketing includes year-round television spots, online video, and the distribution of one million samples. While some samples will be distributed at events, most will be in-home samples given out in Ontario and Quebec this fall, Doolan said. General Mills is also working with bloggers and key influencers to promote the product.
The dessert has an eight-month shelf-life without refrigeration.
The bars became available at major Canadian grocery stores in mid-June with a suggested retail price of $3.49 for a box of five.
A version of this article originally appeared at CanadianGrocer.com.
