Drinking coffee and watching Bridgerton is a tough job, but somebody’s gotta do it.
Of course, as VP of Beverages at Danone, there’s a lot more to Brittney Polka’s work than that. Along with helping guide a growing portfolio of LTOs tied to hot IPs like the aforementioned Netflix hit, she’s tasked with keeping both the International Delight and STOK Cold Brew coffee brands growing while also keeping an eye on ever-evolving coffee trends on social media that can potentially be integrated into new product R&D (see: “cold foam”). And with the recent launch of its popular Reese’s-licensed iced coffee in 16 oz. cans, she’s also taking one of its most poptent properties into a format primed for c-store coolers.
We caught up with Polka earlier this month to chat about the new Reese’s release, how the brand captured iconic sitcom Friends in a flavor, and how user-generated content on TikTok is influencing decision making at Danone.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
Let’s start with International Delight and Reese’s. Why take this product into cans and into a c-store setting?
We have core offerings in our single serve cans today — your very typical and large offerings like vanilla caramel macchiato and mocha. We also have other co-branded items as well that do very well for us.
The single-serve Reese’s offering is definitely geared towards an on-the-go occasion, and something like 90% of the single-serve market today has cream and is sweetened. So there are very different dynamics at play than what you see in the multiserve segment. C-stores is a big driver of on-the-go consumption but there’s plenty of [that] happening across traditional retail as well.
I will say, when we launch new items – like the promotion that we did for Reese’s – c-stores are the perfect place to attract that consumer who’s picking something up in a slightly more impulsive moment. It makes absolute sense to launch new product news with great partners like 7-Eleven [and] Speedway for the single serve lineup because it’s a huge part of where the business is sold today.
How do you regard International Delight’s place within the coffee category relative to Danone’s other big RTD brand, Stok Cold Brew?
There are so many complexities to a question like that, so I’ll try to pick up on a couple that I think might be interesting. International Delight is really a brand that’s all about flavor and specifically capturing the attention of the next generation of coffee drinkers by being really focused on launches that are unique and culture-driven, and limited time offerings — things that people will look at and think ‘That’s really exciting, I’m going to add that to my repertoire.”
So International Delight really satisfies that role to play in the market, whereas Stok is a brand that we think really plays more for a coffee aficionado, you know, someone who’s interested in a variety of really high quality cold brew products. The vast majority of our lineup is black and unsweetened, so it really serves as this kind of blank canvas for personalization, which we know has heightened in the world, especially post-COVID.
The products themselves play a huge role, but then there’s also the brand personality. International Delight is a brand that’s really about flavor and fun and having your cup exactly as you want it. Stok is a brand that we’ve placed squarely in the role of having ‘no chill’ as we call it. But also with enough of a touch of reality that we don’t take ourselves too seriously.
Using a license like Reese’s is a bit different to adapting a creamer product from a Netflix show like Bridgerton.
I’m very excited about the fact that this incredible, now multi-year, licensing journey for International Delight creamers is extending to iced coffee. The first [release] was actually last winter with Peppermint Mocha and Dr. Seuss’s Grinch, with a fast follow by Bridgerton. We’ve got a lot of learning already happening on the creamer side of the business, with the goal always being to launch super unique, culture-driven partnerships. And now we’re using the flavor as a way to help storytell and take inspiration from the property itself.
With something like Bridgerton, it’s about attempting to find something that will drive interest from consumers. For Friends, the creamer launch ended up being a Hazelnut Mocha, which was inspired by Central Perk’s Manhattan Mocha coffee, which is not something that ever got a lot of attention on the show, but superfans might have noticed that it was constantly written up in this framed chalkboard menu in the background. So it’s just our way of having a little fun with choosing an item or a flavor that we think people will automatically get.
Does that mean International Delight is pushing hard on innovation? Is it becoming more difficult to ‘wow’ consumers in the creamer category?
I think that the most important thing from a business standpoint, as you’re thinking about launching some of these limited time offerings or unique collaborations, is that you ensure that you’re bringing something that’s incremental to the category, to the consumer, to the retailer, and certainly to your own business. The International Delight portfolio has always been very expansive but in the case of some of these much more unique flavors that we’re launching, it’s an intentional moment of finding something that will be interesting to consumers enough to really get that big spike in trial around the fandom that’s associated with either the flavor or the property itself, but maintaining the core as exactly that.
Because consumers have really gotten used to us being a brand that offers super unique flavors over time, you’re able to maintain that core usage across vanilla, caramel and mocha, along with the incremental purchase of something unique, like a Bridgerton or Friends item, or a [seasonal] incremental purchase of pumpkin or peppermint mocha. It’s really about driving incrementality with exciting partnerships and properties and allowing what those properties stand for, and how we come to market, to halo to the true core of the business, which will always be the prime focus of everything that we do.
How are you guys thinking more broadly about enhancing the at-home coffee experience with something like Cold Foam? How much are coffee trends on TikTok driving in-house R&D and innovation?
Cold foam has been so fun to see, I will say. It’s very clear to me that coffee shop-style drinks are certainly on the rise, and we really take a lot of inspiration from social media. We’re attempting to attract that new generation of coffee drinkers and they’re getting the vast majority of their inspiration for their own at home coffee drinking from social — more than really any other categories. Of course, there’s a ton of food and experimentation happening on platforms like TikTok, but coffee in particular plays a very special role on some of these social channels. I want to say there were 300-plus million hashtags for ‘cold foam’ on TikTok before we ever launched.
And that social activity that was already happening is really what’s driving this “fourth wave” of coffee consumption — essentially purchasing your own coffee and making yourself exactly the personalized cup that you want, at home. That is something that we only see continuing, and social as a way for us to participate in that – both from [a] branded messaging standpoint, as well as with very organic user-generated content that’s happening constantly. Cold foam is a really cool way to see that come to life, and all the better when they use it on top of Stok cold brew or International Delight iced coffee.