Popular YouTube star and digital creator Jimmy Donaldson — also known as MrBeast — recently launched a better-for-you snack brand called Feastables. Known for his philanthropic work and elaborate YouTube videos, MrBeast decided to kick off the launch of Feastables with a Willy Wonka-style giveaway with $1 million in prizes and a chance to win MrBeast’s Chocolate Factory.
The first product to launch from the direct-to-consumer (DTC) brand is the MrBeast Bar, a gluten-free chocolate bar that comes in three flavors: almond chocolate, original chocolate and quinoa crunch chocolate. Given that Donaldson grew up with Crohn’s disease, the Feastables team formulated the products accordingly.
The brand has tapped snack industry vet and former president of RxBar Jim Murray to lead strategy. The startup is being incubated within Donaldson’s management company Night. Feastables is also working with the Rainforest Alliance to sustainably source cacao and will support Beast Philanthropy through food and cash donations.
Related: Goodles Offers Adult Mac and Cheese Lovers a Better-for-You Alternative
But Featsables will be much more than a better-for-you chocolate brand. It will also be rooted in gamified experiences, which is unsurprising given that MrBeast has amassed a YouTube empire of nearly 90 million subscribers upon stunts, giveaways and contests with eye-popping rewards.
Upon purchase, consumers are invited to enter codes that appear on the product’s packaging on a dedicated website to see if they’ve won any instant prizes, with every entry going toward a draw for the grand sweepstakes. Ten winners will be selected to compete in a “MrBeast’s Chocolate Factory”-themed YouTube video.
Other instant prizes — arriving with each new Feastables drop — will include a Tesla, Sea-Doos, Super73 electric bikes, Artesian Builds gaming computers, Turtle Beach gaming bundles, Beats by Dre earbuds, a lifetime supply of chocolate, cash and MrBeast merchandise, among others.
As MrBeast told Fast Company, when coming up with this idea, he asked himself, “What is something I think my audience will get most excited about, that they’ll like, what’s interesting, what’s the most spectacular thing we can do? And it doesn’t get more of a spectacle than flying people in to compete for a chocolate factory.”
This marketing strategy, along with the fact that MrBeast is the face of a brand with a built-in following, gives Feastables a certain level of authenticity that other food and beverage brands lack. MrBeast’s entry into the food industry also highlights the role social media has had in making trends like this possible.
Social media has clearly changed the game for the food industry. Brands can now market effectively and cheaply. MrBeast can take things a step further by using his own celebrity and giant social media presence to create a brand around himself. It’s actually his second food industry venture; he also operates a virtual burger brand called MrBeast Burger.
MrBeast Bars are available on the company’s DTC website with prices ranging from $2.98 to $49.99 for individual bars and bundles, respectively. Individual bars are also available on Walmart’s website for $2.98 and can be ordered exclusively through instant delivery company Gopuff for delivery in as little as 15 to 20 minutes.
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