Launch of New Brand Extension through School Communities

• 
• 

The Objective

To support the launch of General Mills’ new Lucky Charms Breakfast Bars, the brand needed to generate awareness and trial among a key demographic of young Hispanic families.

The Solution

School Family Media designed a sampling program for the brand that would leverage their audience of PTO leaders and their connection and influence in school communities to place Lucky Charms Breakfast Bars directly in the hands of parents. With an emphasis on reaching Hispanic parents, School Family Media tapped into its proprietary database of PTO leaders in South Florida, Texas, and Southern California to identify schools with large Spanish-speaking populations to distribute 50,000 cereal bars.

An opt-in marketing campaign consisting of email, newsletter, and social encouraged leaders across the country to sign up for the chance to be selected to receive the Lucky Charms Breakfast Bars for an upcoming school event. Over 350 school groups signed up for the sampling program and 98 were selected to participate. Each participating PTO group received the requested and needed number of Lucky Charms Breakfast Bars plus collateral, an instructional letter, and contextual gift tags in both English and Spanish. The cereal bars were distributed to parents attending a volunteer-run school event between February – March 2023.

The Results

PTO leaders across 98 schools distributed Lucky Charms Breakfast Bars to families with elementary school-aged kids at Spring school events with parents in attendance. PTO leaders shared their event and sampling success with others through social media channels, and in a follow-up parent survey:
• 66% of leaders personally spoke with parents about Lucky Charms Breakfast Bars
• 79% had already purchased or were very likely to purchase Lucky Charms Breakfast Bars for their families, including 77% of parents who indicated they had never purchased Lucky Charms Breakfast Bars before