The Bear Maximum: Fiber Pop Mascot Is A Launch Success

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PepsiCo’s Smartfood popcorn brand is extremely on-trend with Fiber Pop, its latest product launch. With fibermaxxing taking off on TikTok and consumer experts declaring fiber ‘the new protein’, the time couldn’t be better to innovate with fiber-boosted popcorn flavours. After all, popcorn has always had a reputation for being a healthier snack than many other options. But the Fiber Pop brand still has work to do introducing itself to the consumer and selling its primary benefits.

Enter the highly appropriate Gut Miami agency and their charming creation FiBEAR, a brand mascot for the new line. FiBEAR’s lifestyle when we first meet him is inspired by a certain other famous cartoon bear – he lives in the Hundred Acre Wood and eats nothing but honey. Bad news for his digestion! But with Fiber Pop he can enjoy his food and not have anything to worry about in the bathroom.

As an ad for fiber-enhanced popcorn, this gets straight to the point – the product will improve your digestion – and doesn’t shy away from showing exactly what that means. It could be a risky strategy. Not every consumer is happy when food ads remind them what happens at the other end. But that’s where FiBEAR comes in, as his loveable animated presence makes the storyline feel cheeky, not gross. It’s a strong, simple message, a funny ad, and one where the product is very much the hero.

How do audiences respond? We looked at the ad’s performance on Test Your Ad Pro, and there’s good news for Fiber Pop. It rated 3.9-Stars on Test Your Ad, a very good score firmly above the norm for savory snacks. And when you look at the ad’s “Key Associations”, the top ones are for ‘popcorn’ and ‘fiber’, a sign the ad is clearly communicating its message. Fiber Pop also score well above the category norm for Emotional Intensity – FiBEAR’s activities are making the ad resonate better than a functional, message-driven ad usually could.

As for Brand Fluency, a score of 64% doesn’t look high, but remember that this product has been on shelves for literally a week at this point. For almost every viewer, this is the first time they’ve ever heard of Fiber Pop, and two-thirds of them remembered the name – that’s a solid result for a new brand.

The question is, will that recognition improve on future ads? And here’s where Fiber Pop and Gut have given themselves an excellent foundation. Using a brand mascot for a new product is a great call – it means there’s an opportunity for the marketing to build on this launch with creative consistency and develop a familiar and likeable brand asset over time. The high Star Rating and the comments on the Test Your Ad Pro results from viewers tell us that FiBEAR is a big hit. We think he’ll have the chance to munch plenty more Fiber Pop in future, doing his tummy – and his brand – a whole lot of good.