Emerging food and beverage brands have a loooot to live up to, especially in the cereal market. Not only do new cereals have to fight against the flavor of long favorites like Cheerios, Frosted Flakes and Cap'n Crunch, they have to beat the childhood nostalgia consumers associate with them.
But smart up and coming brands know there are a few things Gen Z values more than anything: value-driven messaging, healthy solutions and creativity.
Magic Spoon is a high protein, low carb cereal targeting health-minded Gen Z consumers - and they know what they're doing. With hundreds of thousands of followers across socials and a rapidly expanding consumer base, the brand has mastered pulling the right levers while maintaining a reputation rooted in authenticity.
Here's what you can learn from them.
Magic Spoon's website, Instagram and product are filled with images and graphics designed to make young shoppers with short attention spans stop to take a second look.
Magic Spoon understands the importance of making creative a priority in brand development - not an afterthought. And their founders say experimentation is crucial in figuring out what resonates best with target audiences.
"By exploring with different kinds of creative content, as weird as it might be, you might be able to catch a glimpse into what your audience loves and tap into something really special," Founder Greg Sewitz told Adweek.
Before launching Magic Spoon, founders Greg Sewitz and Gabi Lewis co-founded Exo, a cricket protein bar company. Once they mastered selling an almost-impossible-to-sell product, they sold and moved on to developing a product they knew consumers already wanted - a cereal with all the taste and none of the health costs.
They picked familiar flavors like frosted, fruity and cocoa, and paired them with variations of low carb, high protein, gluten-free and keto ingredients. They even began letting customers customize their own cereals. That's when they reached epic success.
The lesson here? Instead of completely reinventing the wheel, try tailoring a crowd favorite to a new audience.
Magic Spoon has mastered organic and paid campaigns. Most notably, the brand partnered with creators at TikTok's Sway House to release its two exclusive summer flavors: Chocolate Peanut Butter and Jelly Donut.
It can be incredibly effective to tap into pre-existing loyal audiences, rather than trying to reach fandom independently.
Gen Z consumers are big fans of online shopping, and have turned to finding some of their favorite foods & bevs online. That's why Magic Spoon relies heavily on digital - with a focus on paid social ads that funnel directly to online sales.
