3x Snack Brands Making The Hype List

For some people, life in lockdown has ignited a passion for fitness or learning languages. For others, it’s meant a lot of snacking. This could be why our feeds are all about food right now – every day seems to bring another hype-worthy snack launch. Foodbeasts (the hypebeasts’ cool snack-fixated cousins) are having a field day. Here are three brands for your next shopping list:

1. Celebs (and the world) go krazy for KitKat V

Since the dawn of time, brands have lived by one unbreakable rule: give the people what they want. Right now, that means vegan. KitKat is the latest big name to announce a plant-based version of its core product, much to the delight of vegan Instagram.

Kim Kardashian, musician Finneas (brother of Billie Eilish) and many others on the platform were quick to share their excitement about KitKat V, due to arrive in stores later this year. We have to admit, we were watching the reaction to this one particularly closely – the packaging was developed in the (virtual) LOVE studio.

Garry Calderwood, Senior Design Director at LOVE, said: “KitKat have disrupted their core packs before by bringing out Ruby, Green Tea and Gold editions, but we wanted this pack to be even more impactful in order to capture the imagination of the vegan community and beyond. It had to look pretty special to drive shareability, so we set about creating a lush world of plant-based ingredients to pull consumers in.”

2. Tony's Chocolonely x Pharrell's Black Ambition

Tony’s Chocolonely exists to eradicate child labour and modern slavery in the global chocolate supply chain. Their chocolate tastes pretty damn good too. Now they’ve announced a major partnership with Pharrell Williams that promises to “empower people and the planet”.

The collaboration kicks off, of course, with a special edition bar – the Black Ambition bar is Tony’s milk chocolate mixed with crunch caramel, almond, nougat, pretzels and flakey sea salt. Proceeds from this mouth-watering product will support Black Ambition, a non-profit created by Pharrell to make entrepreneurship more inclusive.

According to Tony’s, there’s a lot more to come from the partnership, including some “top-secret surprises”. The brand said in a press release: “We’re in it to win it with Pharrell Williams, and by winning it, we mean achieving both of our missions.” In the meantime, fans are advised to keep their eyes on social media for a chance to win one of the Black Ambition bars before they reach stores later this year.

3. TikTok sends Little Moons rocketing

Here’s yet another testament to the power of TikTok – this time mochi ice cream Little Moons was the beneficiary of an unexpected viral moment.

The brand, which promises “bite-sized adventures”, saw sales shoot up by a massive 700% in Tesco after TikTok users started to share videos of their trips to “big Tesco” in search of the treats. Other stockists such as Waitrose and Amazon Fresh also reported huge surges.

It’s safe to say nobody was expecting this, but packaging up mochi ice cream (nothing new in itself) in a way that clearly resonates with kidults all over the country is a huge achievement for a relatively unknown brand. Little Moons co-founder Howard Wong said the craze had demonstrated TikTok’s potential to “exponentially grow awareness of an FMCG brand almost overnight”.

SEEN is compiled by LOVE’s Senior Copywriter, Matt Duxbury. Want to say hello, ask questions or challenge his cultural knowledge? Get in touch - mattduxbury@lovecreative.com