Dive Brief:

• Wonderful Halos, a brand of mandarins, is partnering with 8-year-old YouTube star Ryan of Ryan's ToysReview on a video, the company announced via press release. The video is also a collaboration with Pocket.watch, a kids' virtual entertainment platform. 
• The five-minute video shows Ryan and his parents visiting the Halos orchards in California to explain where the mandarins come from. 
• The campaign includes a Play Date with Ryan Instant Win Game. Parents can visit a microsite to enter their kids to win a play date with Ryan and get Wonderful Halos delivered while they're in season. 

Dive Insight:

Partnering with Ryan of Ryan's ToysReview could help Wonderful Halos connect with a vast audience of parents and children and grow its brand awareness. Ryan's YouTube channel has more than 17 million subscribers and has racked up more than 26 billion views since launching in 2015. Ryan also recently topped Forbes' list of the highest-paid YouTube Stars for 2018, bringing in $22 million from June 2017 to June 2018. He also has his own toy line that's sold at Walmart and Target. 

The campaign isn't the first time the brand has partnered with Ryan. It follows another Wonderful Halos partnership with Pocket.watch from earlier this year on two YouTube videos, "Ryan's Family Review" and "EvanTube RAW," which have attracted more than 6.6 million views combined. 

Wonderful Halos teaming up with Ryan is the latest example of how brands are opting to work with influencers over celebrities to create more emotional and authentic connections with consumers. Younger consumers tend to see influencers as more trustworthy and engaging. Sixty-five percent of major brands said they were planning to increase their influencer marketing spend over the next 12 months, per the World Federation of Advertisers. Millennials, likely the parent demographic that Wonderful Halos is going after, are also most receptive to video marketing content, with 85% of millennials saying they’ve purchased a product after watching a video, according to Brightcove research. 

By showcasing its orchards, Wonderful Halos is also attempting to tap into consumers' growing interest in where their food comes from. This is a trend that more marketers of food brands are embracing to attract millennials, who have shown a preference for fresh healthy foods. Another example is a recent Del Monte campaign "Growers of Good," which spotlights the brands relationship with farmers, communities and people in producing its fruits and vegetables. Welch's also recently unveiled a new campaign called "Tough as Grapes," which targets Gen X men and tells the story of how its grape juice is made.