A new M&M’s character is set to hit the stage. Mars Canada announced this week that the sixth candy character, Ms. Brown, will soon appear alongside the brand’s other colourful personalities.
Brown M&Ms have been part of the product’s make-up for the past 70 years, but unlike the other colours, have never been used to market the brand as the animated “Red” has done for years.
“Each spokescandy has its own name and personality,” explained Chantal Templeton, brand director for M&Ms at Mars Canada.
“Fans wanted to hear the story behind the brown character. There was a recent colour vote, where fans were asked to vote for their favourite M&Ms spokescandy. They wanted to vote for brown, but that wasn’t an option at the time.”
Ms. Brown is set to make her debut across the U.S. and Canada via Mars Canada’s Facebook page on Jan. 30 at 3:00 p.m. EST. A Ms. Brown video ad will also debut on the site on Feb. 5 before its broadcast television launch the next day.
The character’s debut is a coordinated effort between the U.S. and Canada. Creative was done by agency of record BBDO in New York and Toronto. Sklar Wilton & Associates out of Toronto handled consumer research, which included consumer panels and ad testing to see how Ms. Brown’s personality fits with the balance of the candy characters.
“We want to engage chocolate lovers all across Canada, so our TV spots will be appearing on regular and specialty stations, including CTV, CBC, Global, History, and Discovery Channels – and TVA and Canal V in Quebec,” said Templeton.
In addition, M&M’s partnered with Cineplex for theatre channel previews. Other campaign elements include in-store material and store promotions from Activation. MediaCom handled the media buy, while Fleishman-Hillard managed the public relations portion of the campaign.
