Chobani Seeks Kid Champions

Now that Chobani has persuaded American adults to eat their Greek-style yogurt, it's trying to accomplish the same with kids. Chobani introduced its Champions line for children in January and now is hatching its first integrated marketing campaign.

Yogurt is a great playground for kid-directed products, of course, ranging from Yoplait's inspired Go-Gurt in a tube to Dannon's long-awaited recent answer, called Coolision, which starts out as two flavors of yogurt in two tubes. Along the way there also have been lots of sprinkles, too-sweet flavors, even probiotics that have come and gone in the segment.

Chobani is playing things pretty straight with Champions. "At different grassroots events we noticed that kids loved Chobani," Nikki Briggs, the brand's director of communications, told brandchannel. "We felt children deserved their own. So this isn't driven by category insights or margin numbers; we wanted to bring kids the best product possible. We think there's huge potential for it."

The brand is trying to help, in its new campaign, by identifying four "characteristics" of a "Chobani Champion": "imaginative, active, courageous and caring."

The campaign includes a mobile app (called, cleverly, Champlify) that encourages parents to engage their children in online activities that tie into these four characteristics, such as acts of kindness. It's available for Android and Apple devices.

And, of course, no kids' food or beverage today would be complete without an exercise component, given concerns about childhood obesity. So the Champions effort includes a partnership with not-for-profit playground provider KaBOOM! on Save Play, a campaign to provide US play areas for 1 million children this year.

If Chobani's success in turning adult Greek-style yogurt into as much as a $1-billion brand in just four years is any indication, expect a lot of American kids to be chomping Champions in the years ahead.