ORRVILLE, OHIO — The J.M. Smucker Co. aims to energize its Sweet Baked Snacks business by launching its first brand marketing campaign for Hostess.

Rolling out March 19, the campaign will introduce to the Hostess brand platform the “We Speakie Snackie” tagline, which J.M. Smucker said is “designed to bring a fun, playful new voice to the snacking world.”

Media coverage will include animated online videos, social media, radio, billboards and in-store marketing, as well as a strategic Spotify partnership, according to J.M. Smucker. The company said cultural activations also will roll out throughout the year, including a Munchie Mobile activation leading up to Easter Sunday.

“At Smucker, we have a disciplined and proven marketing playbook that allows us to reimagine the role our brands play in culture and make them even more relevant to today’s consumer,” said Gail Hollander, chief marketing officer at Orrville-based J.M. Smucker. “We put the consumer at the center, marrying the consumer truth, cultural truth and brand truth to deliver experiences that are authentic to the brand, while bringing consumers positivity and joy – something they increasingly desire today. The work we’ve done with Hostess is a perfect example of how this model comes to life, and I can’t wait to bring this campaign to current fans and new ones alike.”

With creative developed by BBH USA in partnership with Publicis Groupe’s PSOne, the Speakie Snackie platform showcases Hostess’ lineup of Twinkies, Ding Dongs, Ho Hos and other products through “witty, irreverent, snackable content” that grabs consumers’ attention and makes snack time “more fluffie, cakie and fun than ever,” J.M. Smucker said. The company noted that, in a crowded snack aisle, Hostess “needed a fresh way to break through” despite its status as a iconic snack brand.

“Hostess brand has made the language of snacking as fun as snacking itself,” said Erica Roberts, chief creative officer for New York-based BBH USA. “Twinkies, Zingers, Ding Dongs, Ho Hos, these are all words and phrases that have found their way into culture, and it’s time we reclaim them as our own. ‘We Speakie Snackie’ is setting out to do just that in a fun, cream-filled, chocolate-frosted, uniquely Hostess kinda way.”

Brand drive part of broad Hostess revival strategy

J.M. Smucker said it has employed a similar marketing playbook before to revitalize brands such as Folgers and Meow Mix, as well as to bolster brands like Jif and Milk-Bone and spur “established new favorites” such as Uncrustables and Café Bustelo.

In reporting third-quarter results in late February, J.M. Smucker announced a $794 million goodwill impairment charge for its Sweet Baked Snacks business unit and a $208 million impairment charge related to the Hostess brand indefinite-lived trademark.

“These impairment charges are driven by the recent underperformance of the Sweet Baked Snacks segment,” chief financial officer Tucker Marshall said in a Feb. 27 webcast on the quarterly results.

For the quarter ended Jan. 31, Sweet Baked Snacks sales fell 8% year over year, while the segment’s profit sank 19%, J.M. Smucker reported. And during a Feb. 27 conference call on the results, one analyst said the impairment charges represent almost 20% of the purchase price that the company paid for Hostess, which was acquired in November 2023.

“This (the impairment charges) reflects the slower-than-anticipated recovery of the sweet baked goods category and our execution from a distribution, merchandising and competitive standpoint,” Marshall said.

Both he and Mark Smucker, chairman, president and chief executive officer, remain positive about the Hostess brand, describing the sluggishness in the Sweet Baked Snacks unit as temporary. They cited a “five pillar” plan now underway to reignite Hostess, to be led by Judd Freitag, recently named senior vice president and general manager of Pet and Sweet Baked Snacks.

Also, the company introduced a new logo and packaging for Hostess in January and, in early March, unveiled a pair of new products: Hostess Donettes Apple Cinnamon Fritter Rings and Hostess Cupcakes Minis.