McVitie’s
2015, U.K.
Evolved the nation’s treasured biscuit for a new snacking occasion
Overview
United Biscuits, a prominent UK biscuit manufacturer, approached Bow & Arrow to innovate their product offering across their major brands: Digestives, GoAhead, and HobNobs, to establish dominant market share.
Context
Compared to the chocolate and confectionery category, where products had already evolved to serve current consumer trends and behaviours, the biscuit category had largely stayed stale for decades, consequently losing out on market share. This project presented a huge opportunity for change.
Process
A combination of ethnography, supermarket analysis and market data indicated there was appetite to create a permissible treat for an ‘always-on’ mentality. At the same time, we worked closely with R&D to understand factory capabilities - possibly the best part of the project.
Drawing formats and snacking behaviours from confectionary and savoury snacks, we came up with a variety of new biscuit formats and flavours to put into testing.
Outcome
I led category-defining innovation for the UK biscuit industry, whilst retaining the well-loved taste and texture of the Digestive biscuit range in a modern, more relevant format.
The classic Digestives in nibbly, crunchy biscuit balls, covered in deliciously smooth chocolate. Now available in resealable share bags.
The same crowd favourite Digestives with less than half the calories and guilt. Delicate thinner biscuits, smothered with a layer of smooth chocolate.
Results
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Sales of McVitie’s Nibbles exceeded expectations, making £12m in year 1. McVitie’s Thins had a predicted revenue of £12m.
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McVitie’s had a 2.4% sales growth to 440m, ahead of Modelez, Nestle and Fox’s
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The success of the UK’s release paved the road to global release and availability.
