Simon Mowbray
Masterfoods is to back biscuit newcomer Bisc& with a £15m marketing campaign, making it the company's "biggest priority" this year.
It also aims to make the brand, plans for which were revealed in The Grocer at the end of last year, a £30m-a-year player by 2005. If successful, the four-flavour brand which incorporates biscuit with countline stars Mars, Twix, Bounty and M&M's would almost certainly become a top 10 brand in an increasingly competitive market.
Rolling out to stores now, it is the first time that confectionery stalwart Mars has been put into a biscuit format in Britain, while the inclusion of Twix in the range signals the end for the Twix Top variant which is being withdrawn.
The Bisc& range has already performed well outside of Britain, having become an £80m brand in Europe and the second biggest biscuit brand in Germany.
Brand manager Ian Whitney said: "This is our biggest priority this year.
"We aim to make it a £30m brand (in Britain) within two to three years and do not see any reason why that will not be achieved."
Half of the allocated marketing spend for 2003 is going on two TV ads for the range, set to hit screens next month.
The rest of the spend will go on outdoor advertising, instore theatre and sampling. Advertising for the range, which each come in six-count multipacks (rsp: 99p), will feature the slogans You'll love them together' and The biscuit with famous friends'.
Spokeswoman Sam McElligott added: "We are bringing our expertise of confectionery into the chocolate biscuit bar market with a new brand which already has proven results in other markets."
A buyer at one major supermarket told The Grocer: "We are quite excited about Bisc&. There is no reason why it shouldn't do well."
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Masterfoods is to back biscuit newcomer Bisc& with a £15m marketing campaign, making it the company's "biggest priority" this year.
It also aims to make the brand, plans for which were revealed in The Grocer at the end of last year, a £30m-a-year player by 2005. If successful, the four-flavour brand which incorporates biscuit with countline stars Mars, Twix, Bounty and M&M's would almost certainly become a top 10 brand in an increasingly competitive market.
Rolling out to stores now, it is the first time that confectionery stalwart Mars has been put into a biscuit format in Britain, while the inclusion of Twix in the range signals the end for the Twix Top variant which is being withdrawn.
The Bisc& range has already performed well outside of Britain, having become an £80m brand in Europe and the second biggest biscuit brand in Germany.
Brand manager Ian Whitney said: "This is our biggest priority this year.
"We aim to make it a £30m brand (in Britain) within two to three years and do not see any reason why that will not be achieved."
Half of the allocated marketing spend for 2003 is going on two TV ads for the range, set to hit screens next month.
The rest of the spend will go on outdoor advertising, instore theatre and sampling. Advertising for the range, which each come in six-count multipacks (rsp: 99p), will feature the slogans You'll love them together' and The biscuit with famous friends'.
Spokeswoman Sam McElligott added: "We are bringing our expertise of confectionery into the chocolate biscuit bar market with a new brand which already has proven results in other markets."
A buyer at one major supermarket told The Grocer: "We are quite excited about Bisc&. There is no reason why it shouldn't do well."
{{MARKETING }}
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