The cereal maker announced earlier this week that specially marked boxes of Lucky Charms marshallow are hitting retail stores across the US. Consumers are encouraged to enter the 14-digit code printed on an panel inside the box to see if they are one of the 10,000 winners.
“Our marshmallows are one of kind,” senior marketing manager at General Mills, Priscilla Zee, said. “Fans know each shape by name and many have a favorite charm.”
General Mills said the limited edition marshmallows will be available until December this year.
Struggling cereal market
Meanwhile, Euromonitor noted that General Mills held a tenuous lead over Kellogg for the largest share of the breakfast cereal category in 2016, with shares of 26% and 25% respectively.
"General Mills increased its value share of the category by a slight margin through 1% value growth in current terms, its first positive growth since 2012,” said the market researcher.
“This growth, unique as breakfast cereal sales continued to fall across the board, was largely due to strong performances from General Mills brands that offered qualities satisfying ongoing consumer preferences for greater health and convenience.
“Most impactful was the 2% growth of Cheerios in 2016, the US’s most popular breakfast cereal brand with a 9% value share of all breakfast cereals,” Euromonitor said.
According to Euromonitor, retail volume sales of breakfast cereals are expected to fall by 2% between 2016 and 2021, while sales are set to decline by 5% at constant 2016 prices to reach $10.1bn.