Dive Brief:

• Ferrera's Sweetarts candy brand is releasing an online music mixer for fans to create their own beats, culminating in a contest where singer-songwriter Christina Aguilera will select the top track, according to a press release.
• Sweetbeats offers a variety of pre-programmed sounds — such as vintage, vibey, soft and moody — inspired by the diversity of properties in the Sweetart candy portfolio. The contest will distill the pool of entrants down to 20 finalists, who will be chosen by fans online. Aguilera will then select the winner from that group in August and host a one-on-one mentor session at a professional studio, where she'll help turn the winning beat into a finished track.
• By emphasizing open-minded values through music, the candy brand is hoping to appeal to the sensibility of younger consumers.

Dive Insight:

With its latest campaign, Sweetarts is using online music production technology to create an interactive digital experience for consumers. Beat-making is a popular activity for music fans, and with an abundance of online platforms making production tech more accessible, the hobby poses an appealing opportunity for marketers to leverage. The candy-themed mixer includes recording sliders and a music visualizer to emulate the real process of producing music.

Driving further interest in Sweetbeats is a contest in which the winner will receive one-on-one advice from Aguilera and a studio session to complete their track. The 19 runners-up will receive a summer's supply of Sweetarts. Songs created online have potential to go viral, as seen through music sharing platforms like SoundCloud. By giving the winning beat a professional touch, Sweetarts could be trying to promote the song for mass appeal while embracing user-generated content.

Underlying Sweetarts' musical campaign is an effort to appeal to Gen Z by emphasizing the values the cohort cares about. Inclusivity, individuality and creativity are a few of these open-minded values, and qualities that Sweetarts is attempting to channel through its beat mixer by offering sounds such as vintage, vibey, soft and moody.

"Sweetarts is a brand that embraces unique combinations and duality — our candies are long and short, soft and chewy and sweet and tart," Jenny Brownson, brand manager of Sweetarts, said in the press release. "And with Sweetbeats, we're letting [fans] create a multi-dimensional sound that is truly their own."

In 2019, Sweetarts launched its "Be Both" campaign that similarly channeled Gen Z's inclusive values. The effort focused on attitudes toward complexities in identity, which have become a social issue that younger consumers expect to be reflected by their favorite brands. For a candy company, appealing to these young generations is important for establishing long-term loyalty.

Also notable about the mixer is the use of a brand microsite that requires participants to sign up through Facebook, Google or email in order to save their beats and vote for the contest. This approach allows Sweetarts to collect first-party data directly from consumers, which could later be used to create targeted marketing efforts.