Ferrero North America plans to spend more than $100 million on marketing campaigns related to next year’s Super Bowl and World Cup.
The sports initiative comes as the candy maker’s parent company continues to expand into the U.S. through acquisitions and investments in domestic production. Founded in Italy and now based in Luxembourg, Ferrero entered North America nearly half a century ago, but it’s only in the last decade that the company has begun to invest in the market in earnest.
In July, Ferrero acquired cereal maker WK Kellogg for $3.1 billion, the latest in a series of deals that include acquiring Nestlé’s U.S. candy business and Wells Enterprises, owner of Halo Top.
The owner of Nutella, which just started its 2026 fiscal year in September, is gearing up for its biggest year ever in the U.S. In the United States, the company is the runner-up and third-largest candy company. hershey And Mars. Ferrero’s privately held parent company reported an 8.9% increase in sales, or revenue, for the fiscal year ended August 31, 2024, the company said in its latest financial data. Ferrero USA’s dollar sales grew 4.5% over the past year, outpacing the broader confectionery and cookies category, according to the company.
“We want to do something big that reintroduces us to North America,” said Michael Lindsay, chief business officer of Ferrero North America.
Ferrero North America sports betting kicks off in February with the company’s first Super Bowl ad starring Kinder Bueno. Sister company Ferrara has previously aired spots during the Big Game, including an ad for Nars Gummy Clusters last year.
And starting in June, Ferrero North America is planning a series of promotions centered around the World Cup. Advertisements for the company’s products will be aired before and after the match, and the company plans to promote promotions in collaboration with about 24 brands.
“Why sports? Sports is still the biggest audience, especially when you want to bring live consumers something that they would actually sit in front of the TV and watch,” Lindsey said. “Especially during the Super Bowl, they watch TV to watch commercials. This is a very unique situation today when you’re trying to reach consumers who are skipping through ads or getting up to make a sandwich.”
More than 127.7 million viewers watched the NFL championship game earlier this year, setting a record, according to Nielsen Media Research. These eyeballs can make it attractive for companies to pay high fees to air commercials during games. Advertisers reportedly comcastIt won a 30-second spot during a February game on NBC Universal. NBCUniversal announced in early September that all of its Super Bowl ad space had been sold.
And while soccer still reigns as the top sport for U.S. viewers, its popularity is also growing. The 2022 World Cup final was reportedly watched by 26 million viewers in the United States.
At the Super Bowl, all eyes will be on Kinder Bueno, which has been sold in the United States since 2019.
Ferrero chose to highlight the candy because it considers Kinder “the most underutilized brand in our portfolio relative to its global success,” Lindsey said. Lindsey said few Americans would guess that the world’s best-selling chocolate brand is Kinder, not Hershey or Nestlé. Still, within a few years, Kinder had grown into a brand worth more than $500 million for Ferrero in the U.S., according to the company.
Additionally, last year, Ferrero opened its first North American chocolate factory in Bloomington, Illinois, to manufacture Kinder products.
The Super Bowl spot hasn’t been filmed yet, but Lindsay says the commercial will run at the same time as Kinder Bueno’s new dark and white chocolate versions.
“(The Super Bowl) is just the perfect vehicle to do a lot of trials at once,” he said.
When the Super Bowl ad spot aired, the company said it would be Ferrero’s biggest marketing effort in the global market ever. But two months later, Ferrero plans to surpass that record in promotion for the World Cup, which begins in North America in April. Almost all products in the company’s portfolio will undergo packaging changes as part of the campaign.
“We’re all in. There’s only one promotion, there’s only one packaging,” Lindsey said.
To benefit from the promotion, customers must purchase multiple products from the entire portfolio. The aim is to help consumers understand that they are buying a wide range of products from Ferrero, from Nutella to Ferrero Rocher to Blue Bunny ice cream.
“It’s all very intentionally focused on driving trials from people who love one brand in the portfolio to people who love the entire portfolio,” Lindsey said.
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal, which owns CNBC. With Comcast’s planned Versant spinoff, Versant will become CNBC’s new parent company.
