Five-part capsule housing mini replicas of real shopping brands will be promoted via platform in the UK.
Zuru has teamed up with a number of Gen Z experts to help grow the viral sensation – 5 Surprise Mini Brands – in the UK and Ireland.
The brand – which has already taken the US and Canada by storm – is now bringing a number of miniature versions of favourite household brands to these shores.
The unique five-part capsule housing exact mini replicas of real shopping brands – including Bird’s Eye Fish Fingers, Aunt Bessie’s Yorkshire Puddings and Goodfellas Pizzas – went viral during its launch in the US, amassing over 700 million views on TikTok, and on average seeing one capsule sold every three seconds.
Zuru has now partnered with Gen Z marketing experts, Fanbytes, to devise a three-phased Tik Tok campaign throughout September, designed to catapult Mini Brands to UK success.
“Mini Brands exploded into the US market last year and became an instant sell out,” explained Erika Sava, international marketing director at Zuru. “It was the number one Googled toy in December and we’ve seen UK super-fans prepared to pay three-to-four times more for the capsules on some online sites.
“We’re experiencing a real appetite for the miniatures trend, and Mini Brands combines this with the appeal of surprise and collectability.”
The relationship with Fanbytes was facilitated by Playtime PR.
“From September 1 until mid-October we will be introducing TikTokkers to a TikTok first with the Mini Bytehouse, plus a variety of challenge, prank and comedic-led content all designed with a Gen Z audience in mind,” Erika continued.
“We felt that a miniature version of the ByteHouse is a natural fit, especially after the American equivalent Hype House members Addison Rae and Avani Gregg became Mini Brands obsessed – they featured the products on their TikTok channels which see a combined following of 82.7m.”
Erika contined: “We also saw vast amounts of unboxing, mini swap pranks and craft project UGC that fans created and shared with the hashtag #MiniBrands which has gained over 393million views to date.”
Timothy Armoo, ceo of Fanbytes, added: “Innovation is at the core of what we do. The Gen Z audience is ever-changing and you cannot win by standing still. When we launched the ByteHouse at the start of lockdown we were ripping the playbook taking individual influencers and building a Gen Z brand – with over 27m fans just on TikTok and over 35 million weekly views, that playbook is working and we’re currently the largest TikTok media owner in the UK.
“This Mini Bytehouse campaign is another great chapter in that innovation and I’m excited to start this with Zuru. They’ve already shown they are ahead of many in their field with their success in the US and with this innovative campaign which combines both the online and offline, we’re excited to partner up with them and help them dominate the UK landscape too.”
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