From Crocs to Caviar to Taco Bell to Nothing Bundt Cakes, Kellanova has cultivated many partnerships for its iconic brands to bring creative product mashups to shelves and menus. The company’s Global Licensing & Cultural Marketing team, Brand Marketers, and Away From Home business drive most of these collaborations, with a shared goal to reach the next generation of consumers.

“How we identify the right partners and create products requires a deep understanding of our brands, cultural trends, the consumer and how they think and what’s important to them—it’s a bit of a science and art,” said David Lee, Kellanova’s Senior Director of Global Licensing & Cultural Marketing. “We’ve been successful with many co-branded partnerships because of this sort of magic—this emotional response and deep connection—our unique products create among our consumers.”

Millennials and younger generations like Gen Z are more likely to try new things, and our teams are constantly collecting data and insights across social media, market research, artificial intelligence, and more to identify their passion points and uncover trends that inspire brand partnerships.

For example, consumer behavior spotted on TikTok spurred Pringles® to act on the “high-low” culinary trend of putting caviar on crisps as a snack. Our teams moved quickly to create a culinary collaboration with The Caviar Co. The limited-edition ‘Crisps and Caviar Collection’ boxes offered three kits each stocked with a gold collectable caviar keychain to open tins and two spoons to enjoy Original Pringles, Sour Cream & Onion, or Smoky BBQ flavors with The Caviar Co.’s Classic White Sturgeon Caviar and Smoked Trout Roe.

“We teased the collaboration at the 2023 Coachella House, turning a social media trend into a tangible ‘thing’,” said Lee. “The pairing trend achieved more than 10 billion TikTok views and 2 billion earned media impressions. Fans of both brands and retailers loved this pairing.”

Another successful collaboration was the Eggo Taco from Eggo® and Moe’s Southwest Grill®. With a desire to show how taste and versatility can be used in unique concepts, we created a first-of-its kind menu item featuring adobo chicken topped with bacon, shredded cheese, and chipotle ranch served on a fried Eggo waffle as the taco shell. The partnership generated over 100 million earned media impressions, and Moe’s Southwest Grill is continuing to collaborate with our teams through a new menu item to be released next month.  

“Working with restaurants and foodservice companies, we have an opportunity to prove that our snacks have a place outside the bag and can come to life on menus to create a one-of-a-kind food experience,” said Michelle Barnes-Beauford, Kellanova’s Away From Home Commercial Strategy Director. “Our goal with partnerships like Eggo and Moe’s Southwest Grill, Pop-Tarts and Crumbl Cookies and Cheez-It and Taco Bell is to bring together brands in an unexpected and delightful way while keeping the consumer at the center.”

Recent partnership launches include Eggo Coffee through a collaboration with Two Rivers Coffee and the Nothing Bundt Cakes’ Frosted Strawberry Pop-Tarts Bundtlet. Try them while supplies last!

Watch this space—there are more exciting partnerships in the snacks, restaurant, and food service spaces to come from Kellanova.