Kind Snacks is trying to inject a lighter touch into a crowded better-for-you snacking category that tends to focus on functional benefits. A new ad campaign debuting Monday stars comedians Eric Wareheim and Atsuko Okatsuka as human embodiments of the stomach and brain, respectively. The two organs — usually in tension when it comes to grabbing a quick bite — unite in the commercials on the dance floor at a school prom, emphasizing that Kind stands as a sensible choice health-wise that doesn’t sacrifice taste. 

Created with agency Energy BBDO, “All Kinds of Good” is part of a larger refresh for Kind that’s meant to bring a clearer sense of direction to a brand that has frequently positioned itself around acts of kindness but more recently began to reassess whether a patchwork of cause-driven efforts aligned with actual commercial opportunities. The revamped approach aims to connect with two core audiences that were potentially underserved in the past: parents in the Gen X and millennial age range who are hunting for nutritional snacks for their families and Gen Zers who tend to snack heavily and are attracted to values-based products. To engage those groups, Kind is adding some new media tactics to its playbook and increasing spend by about 40% over 2023.

“We are quite confident in the work we’re doing and quite bullish in its effectiveness, so we’re willing to put the investment behind it,” said Osher Hoberman, a Mars veteran who took on the Kind CMO role in November.

A new purpose

The maker of fruit-and-nut bars for a long time centered its marketing on the story of founder Daniel Lubetzky, but that made less sense after Mars acquired Kind for a reported $5 billion in 2020, a year that saw the company expand its product portfolio. Lubetzky maintains a stake in the brand. 

Kind from there pushed harder into purpose-led marketing, with activations around areas as disparate as the LGBTQ community, sustainability and celebrating frontline workers. Like a growing list of companies, Kind is now re-examining that approach.

“It was just very fragmented in terms of what the brand [stood] for,” said Hoberman. “The messaging itself was far removed from Kind’s real food proposition.”    

Kind will continue its social work around bringing nutrition to underserved communities with the refresh, according to Hoberman. This is Kind’s first campaign under Hoberman, who previously helped launch Snickers’ signature “You’re Not You When You’re Hungry” campaign and helped lead Mars’ initial investment in Kind.   

When it comes to the ads themselves, “All Kinds of Good” feels more of a piece with how other Mars brands have promoted their products, drawing on the colorful flair of verticals like confectionery.

“It goes for this category and it goes for advertising, more broadly speaking: Consumers could use a little more humor in how we come to life,” said Josh Gross, chief creative officer at Energy BBDO. “Humor felt like such a nice way to stand out in the category and get people to pay attention.”

Kind in the coming weeks will have a branded integration on “Late Night with Seth Meyers” that complements ads appearing during the commercial breaks on the program. Digital out-of-home buys and audio content on Spotify are other new bets that are meant to be additive to a mix of TV, digital video and paid social elements, including partnerships with Meta, TikTok and Snap. Kind is also doubling down on retail media to try and tie its messaging closer to purchasing behavior.

“We’ve always been very active in that space, but bringing a national campaign down to the retail level is something that we’ve never done before,” said Hoberman. “We think it will create a nice synchronization across all of the media channels and great cohesion to the story.”

An expansion in performance marketing comes as Kind seeks to carve out its own path in snack bars and improve its rate of sale. Executives see the brand as acting as a happy medium between the indulgent and the overly restrictive. Along with its signature bars, Kind sells offerings like granola and frozen bars.   

“This is a category that’s probably still underdeveloped. It’s very much underdeveloped when I compare it to confectionery, where I came from,” said Hoberman. “For me, a real measure of success will be if we can drive category penetration and brand penetration alongside the category.”