On the latest episode of the Omnichannel Marketer, I had the pleasure of speaking with Colin Flood, VP of Marketing at Unreal Snacks. 

‍Unreal Snacks is a better-for-you chocolate snack brand.

‍Unreal Snacks started in convenience and drug stores (CVS, Walgreens) ten years ago and through trial and error made it to natural grocery, where it gained the traction required to get to successful in mainstream grocery and convenience..

‍True to this podcast, today Unreal Snacks has omnichannel distribution. 

‍Colin defines Omnichannel as the strategy of getting in front of your customers (advertising, purchase, and consumption) where they are and being presented as a solution for hunger in a way that drives growth and scale.

‍For Unreal Snacks, that is the DTC website, Amazon, and 25,000 doors across natural, traditional grocery, and club stores. 

‍You can find Unreal Snack products Whole Foods, Wegmans, Sprouts, Publix, and Costco.

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The keys to success on retail growth have been:

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1️⃣ The right retailer (natural) 

2️⃣ Closer to or at cash registers (not the candy aisle, which people avoid)

3️⃣ Part of seasonal campaign promotions (Valentine's Day, Halloween etc).

4️⃣ Better for you messaging calling people back to category

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Brian describes this placement as “lower funnel,” the offline equivalent of being closer to the add to cart button. 

‍Brian is excited about the new trends in digital for the grocery category.

‍It’s worth pointing out that Unreal chocolate can melt, so shipping is a challenge and requires ice packs in certain regions at certain times of the year.

‍But he sees local delivery / in-store pickup and retail marketing platform spend as new digital levers that grocery marketers can pull to stimulate growth. 

‍Thanks Colin for sharing your story and perspective.