Dive Brief:

• General Mills cereal brand Fiber One is partnering with comedian and "Saturday Night Live" alum Cheri Oteri to promote the launch of Fiber One Strawberries and Vanilla Clusters, a new flavor that will be available this month, according to details shared with Marketing Dive. 
• The campaign features five six- and 15-second digital spots starring Oteri, who also helped with the script. The videos include one-liners, a spoon drop and tongue-in-cheek references to fiber’s most well-known effect. The campaign includes the tagline, "The Tasty Way to Fiber."
• The campaign was created with Minneapolis-based integrated agency Fast Horse, and the spots were directed by Tyler Spindel of Go Film. Mindshare is Fiber One's media agency.

Dive Insight:

Food Business News listed "digestive wellness" as a top trend for 2019, according to Food Dive, and Fiber One is playing up that trend and using humor and euphemism to tout the benefits of its cereal. The brand appears to be targeting Gen X and older audiences by partnering with Oteri, who starred on "SNL" during the 1990s and will likely be most recognizable to this demographic. 

As consumer packaged foods marketers remain focused on connecting with the coveted millennial generation, they often overlook Gen X, who has more purchasing power and displays more brand loyalty than other age groups. Nearly half of Gen X consumers say they are extremely or quite loyal to brands once they buy into products and are less likely to switch brands, according to a CrowdTrust survey cited in an American Marketing Association blog post. Gen X is also more responsive to loyalty programs, enjoy engaging with brands on Facebook and are value- and price-driven.  

The new Fiber One campaign is also an example of how brands are experimenting with short-form digital video to reach busy consumers on mobile devices. Most advertisers are using 15- and 30-second ads, and 53% use six-second spots, but a survey by Adweek and AI firm GumGum found that in two years, 77% will embrace six-second ads and 81% will use 15-second spots. Ad completion rates are also better for six-second spots, which could help Fiber One build brand awareness with audiences. 

Cereal sales have been slumping over the past few years, as more consumers are opting for on-the-go breakfasts and seeing cereal as an inconvenient option. Fiber One's parent company General Mills recently reported that Q2 2019 net sales in North America totaled $2.68 billion, a 3% decline from the year before. Lower sales activity in its U.S. cereals and a volume drop in U.S. snacks led to the decline. The company also missed analysts' predictions.