Inside popcorn brand LesserEvil’s first national marketing campaign
LesserEvil has been around for about 20 years, but the last few years have marked a turning point for the brand as it has grown beyond the natural food channel.
LesserEvil was founded as a natural kettle corn brand in 2005, but the business was overhauled around 2011. The brand’s gross annual sales hit $65 million in 2022, followed by $103 million in 2023, making it the top-selling popcorn brand in natural grocery. This year, LesserEvil is ready to expand heavily into new categories like snack puffs while growing brand awareness through its first-ever national campaign. The campaign, called “Feed the Feeling,” began rolling out this summer with a sampling bus tour and out-of-home ads.
In turn, LesserEvil’s annual marketing spend has increased by 55% from 2023, according to the company. These significant investments have been fueled by faster revenue growth and new investors. In 2023, LesserEvil received a minority growth investment from Aria Growth Partners. The brand is set to generate around $165 million in revenue this year, having hit $78.5 million in the first six months of the year.
LesserEvil president and CEO Charles Coristine left his Wall Street job to buy the then-struggling snack company for $250,000 in 2011 from the original owner. At the time, the company wasn’t bringing in enough sales to cover costs. Over the following years, LesserEvil became vertically integrated by manufacturing in its Danbury, Connecticut factory, which helped improve margins and provide freedom to experiment with product development and new flavors.
Coristine told Modern Retail that when he took over, LesserEvil had been making a variety of snacks, such as kettle corn and baked veggie sticks but didn’t have a focus. The potential to rebuild it into an organic popcorn brand was unlocked when LesserEvil pivoted to using extra virgin coconut oil around 2014, which helped cut back on oil fat without sacrificing flavor. Today, the company’s Himalayan Pink and Himalayan Gold popcorn are its two top-performing SKUs.
Over the last few years, LesserEvil has been on a mission to expand its portfolio by creating its own version of snack favorites like Space Balls, Cosmic Rings and Paleo Puffs. In May, the company unveiled its latest product, Moonions, a take on onion-flavored rings.
“We’re now an 80% popcorn brand, 20% puffs,” Coristine said, adding that there is an opportunity to grow in the puffs category.
In the coming year, Coristine said the company will continue to push the puffs by promoting the new products and releasing a few more formats. “But we’ll continue to maintain our roots with popcorn.”
As it continues to launch new products, Caitlin Mack, LesserEvil’s director of digital and brand marketing, said the company is just now investing in brand awareness after nearly a decade of expanding its distribution beyond organic and natural markets. LesserEvil’s products are now sold in about 35,000 doors, including Walmart, Target, and Costco.
“We finally felt ready for a brand campaign,” Mack said. “We’ve always been careful with our marketing dollars and taken baby steps to test and learn what works.”
In August, the Feed the Feeling campaign kicked off with a giveaway mobile tour that will visit five markets over three months and give out samples and branded merchandise.
The Feed the Feeling campaign also includes out-of-home ads and the company’s first-ever connected TV ad, which ran across NBCUniversal properties in markets like Minneapolis, Boston and Dallas. These cities were also a focus of LesserEvil’s summer mobile tour, which included influencer partnerships and branded shopper programs on platforms like Instacart.
As the company scales nationally, Coristine said there will be new product line expansions. “But we have to actively manage our portfolio,” he said. “What we typically do is replace the slower-moving items with a new one to see if it works, and so on.”
Leana Salamah, the Specialty Food Association’s senior vp of marketing and communications, said popcorn snacking is surging as people turn to little treats throughout their day. “Better-for-you ingredients like ‘functional oils’ and air-finished formats like puffs help bridge the gap between consumers’ dueling desires for indulgence and healthier snacking,” she said.
Salamah noted that Specialty Food Association research shows that ready-to-eat popcorn grew 25% in sales between 2021 and 2023, which was driven in part by innovation in new formats and flavors. In June, more than two dozen exhibitors listed popcorn as a featured product at the 2024 Summer Fancy Food Show, including rice-based popcorn and flavor profiles like miso caramel and nori crunch. “That shows there is so much innovation happening within the premium sub-category of RTE popcorn.”
Better-for-you popcorn’s growth is currently being driven by brands like LesserEvil and Skinny Pop, among others. Coristine said there is still a big customer base to tap into.
“The mainstream consumer is becoming more conscious and making better choices,” Coristine said. “And we’re making sure that we’re priced close to parity with the mainstream brands, so the decision can be easy for the customers to make.”