Dive Brief:

• Post Consumer Brands, which makes cereals Honey Bunches of Oats and others, partnered with snack brand Hostess to create snack-cake inspired cereals, Hostess Donettes and Hostess Honey Buns, to celebrate National Cereal Day on March 7, according to details shared with Marketing Dive. 
• The brands created two 15-second digital spots depicting a real-life tiny bakery to show how the new cereals were created. The campaign, created with agency Argonaut, will run on YouTube, online and on Facebook and Instagram @hostesscereals. Other content will appear on social media showing different aspects of the tiny bakery operation. Influencers were also sent tiny cereal boxes to share with their followers. 
• Also in celebration of National Cereal Day, Kellogg's debuted a limited-edition Tony the Tiger T-Shirt collection available exclusively at Kellogg’s NYC Café, according to a press release. The designs show the Kellogg's Frosted Flakes mascot through the years since his debut in 1952. The café will also serve special National Cereal Day bowls, and the first 300 fans to purchase a T-shirt or special bow will receive a free box of Frosted Flakes. 

Dive Insight:

Post is embracing several marketing trends — digital video, social media, influencers and limited-edition products —to celebrate National Cereal Day. The partnership with Hostess on the snack cake-inspired flavors could help the brand drum up sales and social media traffic, at a time when cereal sales have been in a decline with consumers opting for less-sugary, more on-the-go breakfast items. 

For its Honey Bunches of Oats brand, Post has featured assembly lines of cereal boxes and real employees, recently bringing back longtime employee and spokesperson Diana Hunter for the "Rhymes with Delicious" campaign. Creating a "tiny bakery" to depict the making of miniature snack cakes follows this creative trend. The quirkiness of the tiny bakery and tapping influencers to share images of tiny cereal boxes could help Post reach younger, more social media-savvy consumers. 

Meanwhile, Kellogg's continues to leverage its NYC Café to offer unique experiences to cereal fans. Last year for National Cereal Day, Kellogg's teamed up with actress and musician Hailee Steinfeld on a party at the café, which featured cereal-themed foods, drinks and a liquid nitrogen cereal bar. This year, the company is playing into the nostalgia trend with its T-shirt line featuring Frosted Flakes' Tony the Tiger mascot through the years and giving consumers the chance to purchase the tee with the logo from the decade they were born. 

Branded merchandise has become a popular marketing trend for brands seeking to connect with consumers. The items often receive media attention and drive up social media engagement. Kellogg's has embraced the trend before with its Froot Loops brand, which teamed up with clothing brand Awaytomars on a clothing and accessories line that featured Froot Loops mascot Toucan Sam. The line included hats, T-shirts, sneakers, a hoodie, a jacket and a dress.