The Most Important Meal of the Day

NHL Rivals take on a new domain – Breakfast Cereal

For NHL fans, the Leafs-Bruins rivalry has become one of the most popular battles to watch over the past decade. The Atlantic division opponents have met multiple times in the playoffs; and if you’re a Boston Bruins fan, you may not consider it much of a rivalry. Regardless of where your loyalties and fandom lie, seeing two of the NHL’s largest markets go toe-to-toe year after year draws a lot of attention.

This past week, the rivalry has taken on a new domain – breakfast cereal. Brad Marchand of the Boston Bruins and the Toronto Maple Leafs’ John Tavares have both launched their own specialty cereal brands through PLB Sports & Entertainment. The company partners with athletes to create personalized food products – with a clear focus on cereal.

Brad Marchand’s March Munch Cinnamon Crunch resembles the popular Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal, and is available online and in select Boston stores – with proceeds going towards Christopher’s Haven (a Boston based organization helping families of children fighting Cancer with affordable housing).

Recipe 91 is John Tavares’ granola cereal with chocolate, blueberries, and coconut. Proceeds from his sales will be going towards the John Tavares Foundation. Boxes will also be sold in select Sobeys locations in Ontario.

Tavares and Marchand are two of the latest NHL stars to grace the cover of their own cereal boxes – earlier in February, Nathan Mackinnon of the Colorado Avalanche had his own box of cereal in select Colorado stores. PLB Sports & Entertainment’s website also sells cereal boxes for a few NFL athletes as well, including DeAndre Hopkins’ “HopBox”.

When many of us who enjoy sports and/or work in sports marketing think of athletes and cereal – the immediate name that comes to mind is Wheaties. Coined the “Breakfast of Champions”, the cereal box has had some of the world’s biggest athletes don the cover of the box. Muhammad Ali, LeBron James, Serena Williams – the list goes on.

The Wheaties box is iconic, the orange box can be seen from the end of the cereal aisle in a grocery store, and consumers recognize the athletes on the box are true champions. With March Munch and Recipe 91 – there is a personalization in the name and the type of cereal, but beyond that it misses the mark. A few weeks ago, we discussed Mike Tyson’s new cannabis gummies and how the product, the brand, and the vision were all aligned. Marchand and Tavares do not stand out for being huge cereal guys, and the personalization of the branding is pretty surface-level based on the potential it could have.

We hope to see more athletes pushing out unique brand engagements, and offering consumers a different way to engage with their favourite talent – we just hope that the brand vision and the execution brings a bit more to the breakfast table.

Published: April 1, 2022 - Issue 32 of The Sport Marketeer