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Snacks Retail Expertise

The Biggest Kid in the Candy Factory

Shaq-A-Licious XL Gummies Provides a Case Study for How Working with Celebrity Brands Can Elevate a Product
Charlie Chappell, VP, Innovation, Christina Foster, Director, Sweets & Refreshments, Research & Development, and Vivek Mehrotra, Brand Manager, Sweets

Key Takeaways:

    • This quarter, Hershey introduced a new line of sweets—Shaq-A-Licious XL Gummies—in partnership with basketball legend and pop culture icon Shaquille O'Neal.
    • Shaq was involved in every aspect of the candy design, from testing flavors to approving the shape of each piece.
    • Shaq-A-Licious XL Gummies models how Hershey can leverage a celebrity's personal brand to launch a product into the dynamic gummy category.

September 10, 2024

There’s a New Gummy in Town

By Vivek Mehrotra, Brand Manager, Sweets

You know the saying, go big or go home? The Hershey product team took it to heart. When it came time to introduce a new line of gummy candy, we went as big as possible: 7' 1”, 325 lbs. kind of big.

We’re thrilled to launch Shaq-A-Licious XL Gummies in original and sour flavors from the mind of the world’s biggest kid, Shaquille O’Neill.

We had been talking for a while about working with a celebrity and finding a way to engage their brand to raise the fun factor of a gummy product. We were ecstatic to learn that Shaq was open to a partnership. Shaq loves candy. And Shaq knows candy. He's long since proven he's more than just a big guy who knows how to win basketball championships. Today he's a respected DJ and a successful entrepreneur, a guy whose cultural savvy is eclipsed only by his sweet tooth.

And the gummy category is on fire, albeit more volatile than the chocolate category, which has had over a century to mature and refine. The gummy market is not only younger but growing faster. Gummies grew 11.8% in the last five years compared to chocolate at 6.3% -- nearly double the rate faster1.

With a space this big, there's more room for innovation and experimentation. We love having fewer “rules” to follow, and at the end of the day, it just comes down to making candy that tastes and looks fun.

One of our first steps on this journey? Bringing the big guy to Hershey to help develop the product.

Big, Meet Delicious

By Charlie Chappell, VP, Innovation & Christina Foster, Director, Sweets & Refreshments, Research & Development

That's right, Shaquille O'Neal was in the house... or at least at our Technical Center in Hershey, Pa. Shaq’s visit in January 2024 was supposed to be a secret, but we're not sure it stayed that way. When we had to ask around to source a really, really, really big lab coat and pair of gloves, it definitely raised some eyebrows. Shaq and his team spent the whole day at Hershey, where we effectively ran a demo for him on the process of making a gummy. He got to press candy shapes into the moulding starch, mix together the flavor and base formula and deposit the compound into each of the moulds. Time and again, Shaq demonstrated that he was more than your average VIP guest, peppering us with questions and ideas about every stage of the process. After spending a day with him, it was clear to us how he manages to be so successful at such a wide range of endeavors: Whatever Shaq is focused on, he attacks it with 100% engagement and commitment.

Shaq with a member of the Hershey team standing next to a chart

Shaq brought more than a sharp focus to his day at the Tech Center; he brought a level of exuberance and energy that reminded us why we wanted to partner with him in the first place. His excitement at the prospect of a gummy piece shaped like his face was contagious. “I want people to bite my head off!” he told us. Consequently, we're really proud of the face designs our team created. One of Shaq's trademarks is, of course, his size, so we knew these gummies would have to reflect that. A finished, bite-ready Shaq-A-Licious gummy piece is larger than the average gummy candy, and the larger “canvas” that piece provides allowed us to render Shaq's face with its unique warmth and expressiveness.

Shaq's smile fits naturally with our sweet (peach, berry punch and orange) candy pieces, but for our sours we went in a different direction, highlighting some of the memorable nicknames Shaq has enjoyed over his basketball career including “The Big Cactus“ and “The Big Shamrock,” so we used cactus and shamrock shapes as vehicles for our mixed berry and sour watermelon flavors. And “Diesel” is the name Shaq has used throughout his music career, from his early hip-hop albums to his current DJ gigs, so a big diesel truck was an obvious choice for our consensus favorite flavor, sour pineapple. Needless to say, Shaq was a part of every stage of the image selection and design process.

Shaq with members of the Hershey team

We're very encouraged by the early reactions to Shaq-a-licious XL Gummies, both from Shaq's team and from our own market research. In fact, our work with Shaq created more than just a fun product—in addressing the discoloration we were getting with the larger pieces, we discovered a process improvement that will impact all of our products going forward. But the entire experience has been a gratifying validation of our goal to work with a celebrity to help push the boundaries of what candy can be and do, as well as a reminder that creating candy is ultimately about creating fun. And when your job is about fun, it barely feels like work at all.

Learn more about Shaq-A-Licious XL Gummies at Shaqalicious.com.

1Circana: 2019-2023 MULO+C CMG Chocolate and Sweets Gummy Form $ Sales