This will be General Mills' first Instagram-led brand launch that places social media at the heart of its launch strategy, with a dedicated influencer partnership campaign led by Palm PR & Digital.
The fruit and nut bar has debuted in Sainsbury’s and Amazon, with the bespoke UK creative platform ‘Less Is Moreish’, created by Haygarth.
The launch plan focuses on experiential sampling, initially at "hyper-targeted fitness and wellness events" and food markets across London, as well as pop-up Lärabar bike that aims to "dramatise how few ingredients make up each product".
"As our first 100 per cent vegan and ‘real food’ snack brand, it plays a pivotal role in our portfolio to reach new consumers as part of our ambition at General Mills to become UK’s number one manufacturer in snack bars," General Mills Europe marketing head of new ventures Arjoon Bose said. "This launch will thus see us deliberately shift from our traditional big-food marketing approach at scale to being hyper-targeted and digital-first to reflect consumer trends in line with this audience."
Bose added: "Bringing online and social content together with a tailored influencer element to this creative territory, alongside our targeted sampling program which has been our time-honoured approach in the US, will be key to creating authentic following and building engagement."
Lärabar was founded by Colorado-based female entrepreneur Lara Merriken in 2000 and acquired by General Mills in 2008. It is the fastest growing US wellness snack bar brand in the nutrition category and sales grew by 25 per cent in the past year to $200m (£152m). Its market penetration has nearly tripled in three years.
