Startups are a dime a dozen in Boston, which has a selfperpetuated reputation as the Silicon Valley of the East Coast.
A graphic map that recently floated around the Boston tech circles geographically orients many of the startups in the area. Online shopping sensation Rue La La hangs out in Southie, along with Abine and Pingup. Across Fort Point Channel, Mobee, OpenBay and Ubersense occupy real estate in the Downtown Crossing area, minutes from the State House. Even the historical Back Bay has seen Swirl and Pongr move in. And now the slightly more shoppingoriented block across the street from the Prudential Center on Boylston is home to a candy company.
Unreal Candy, a Bostonbased chocolate company, was launched in June 2012 with five products all market competitors to the top five bestselling candy bars. With slogans like Get unjunked, the company is determined to change the way Americans consume candy in this country and theyre doing so on an unprecedented scale.
What started as an argument over Halloween candy between Digitas founder Michael Bronner and his 13yearold son Nicky grew into a bona fide candy company less Willy Wonka and more a result of business acumen and major startup cash. The goal? Remove hydrogenated oils, artificial colors and preservatives that are standard ingredients in candies like Reeses, Hersheys milk chocolate bars and M&Ms.
After academic research into the food science of candy making, Bronner approached Adam Melonas, a top chef in Spain and gourmand who sourced the ingredients for the chocolates. Bronner, no novice to starting a business from scratch, brought on board a talented team of friends and techies, including former Google employee Alan Ringvald.
A Bostonian who defected to the West Coast to join the dream team at Google, Ringvald was coaxed back to Boston to join the Unreal team as head of digital marketing.
Ive known Michael since I was a young boy. I had casual conversations with them a few years ago. The big idea centered [on] trying to change food and the way we think about food in the U.S, he said. Generally speaking, its taking food thats really bad for you and [making] it better, not good for you. Adding nutrition to the Snickers bar? Thats nuts, he said.
It takes a certain degree of boldness and raw gumption to leave the winner of Fortunes Best Companies to Work For but Ringvald believed in the message of Unreal.
The startup has kept its product offering small to begin with, now only producing five different candies: chocolate candy shell peanuts, chocolate candy shells, chocolate caramel nougat, chocolate caramel nougat with peanuts and chocolate peanut butter cups. Each candy receives its own color and number, which areeach incorporated on the Tetrislike packaging. At a price range of $.89 and $1.29 for individual bars, they looked, tasted, and cost as much as the leading competitors.
I think it tastes better, junior Simmone Seymour, Unreal Candys representative on the Hill, said. Something that undermines them, though, is that the calorie count isnt that much lower than the average candy. But its still important to focus on the health aspects, like no preservatives.
When compared directly to market competitors, Unreal comes out the winner every time. Take, for example, the chocolate candy shell, with a serving size of 42 grams, compared to a standard M&Ms pack, which is 47.5 grams. Unreals commitment to using less sugar is truly impressive 19 grams of sugar instead of M&Ms whopping 31 grams of sugar. Fiber and protein counts rise as the junk calories from sugar and carbohydrates fall.
Consumers concerned about the triple bottom line will be pleased to hear that Unreal is, too.
Everything is responsibly sourced, Ringvald said. We even had to go to New Zealand to scope out the cows. The shops palm fruit oil a hot topic, Ringvald said comes from a vendor in Brazil that plants two hectares of land for every hectare farmed.
Small vendors dont change an almost monopolistic food sector by entering the market silently. They need to enter with a bang, and for Unreal Candy that bang came in the form of an initial launch in CVS and Walgreens stores nationwide. Around 30,000 grocery and convenience stores locations stock the candy shouldertoshoulder with other established candy bars. Immediate visibility was no problem for the new confectioners: Initial investors like Twitter founder Jack Dorsey and Boston power couple Gisele Bundchen and Tom Brady promised to promote the product star power that could garner the attention of West Coast tech gurus and New England Patriots fans alike.
Unreal is completely reinventing something we take for granted. Those are the innovations I love seeing, Dorsey says in the promotional video that debuted for the launch.
Unreals marketing strategy falls in line with its startup mentality, unconventional product and atypical investors. Ringvald highlights the brands emphasis on digital promotion.
We wanted to try to do things a bit differently, he said. It [digital] is so connected with the audience were looking for: more fluid, more like a current company.
Their biggest push to date was back in October, when the team went full steam ahead on a promoted Twitter trend. As Facebooks IPO indicated, online advertising still falls short in its returns, though the promoted trend paid off for the candy company: Unreal ranked as the top trend on the social media site for the day, with 50 million impressions and 40% of the total user base exposed.
Millennials people currently between 1834 years of age are the target audience for Unreal, and the company also focuses, surprisingly, on millennial moms.
Younger moms are digitally native, so we reach them online, said Ringvald. At this point, firsttime moms were born in 1987 and online resources are really trusted. Blogs and sites like Daily Candy are influential for how these women raise kids, he continued.
Both the CVS and Tedeschi locations in Davis Square stock the candy, and Unreal has targeted Tufts as one of the Boston campuses on which to distribute candy. Unreal Candy, like Red Bull and Vineyard Vines, hires influential college students on campuses in order to promote the product. Seymour, Tufts Unreal representative, makes 5 cents per bar distributing them on campus.
After being given around 4,000 fullsize bars, students have the potential to pick up bundle of cash. Unreal approached online ezine HerCampus to use their preexisting readership and name recognition, which is how Seymour got involved.
But is it effective to pour money into individuals who may or may not be able to change the everfickle tastes of a college student with expendable cash?
I think people do listen and college reps are a really good way to get your brand name out there, commented Seymour. It depends what the product is.
She also commented on the lower costs of sample distribution as compared to traditional magazine, television, bus, or street advertisements. By organizing study breaks with free giveaways in the Tower Caf in Tisch Library, and also handmaking Halloween grams (delivered for a low price), Seymour distributed several thousand around Tufts.
No one at Unreal was permitted to speak to the sellthrough rate, but the next steps continue in the vein of ambitious, large scale operations including expanding presence and reaching a critical mass in Boston, New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles.
For a healthy candy bar without the niche, healthnut reputation, perhaps the brand could coin the quadruple bottom line: people, planet, profit and physical wellness.
