The Ubiquity of Biscoff

It Began with a Biscuit

Drum roll please🥁!  The ever-indulgent U.S. holiday season is upon us and it is a good time for my hungrier side to reflect on the state of how food co-branding collaborations make us more hungry, separate our money from our wallets, and in particular for one especially popular European cookie.

Flying Biscuits

My first brush with a Biscoff cookie was on a transcontinental Delta flight flying coach.  It was around the time airlines were cutting their coach food options.  My first thought was this is it?  No more hot breakfast meals in coach and now you give me a room-temperature foreign “biscuit” to reciprocate?!  I was salty until I took my first bite.  It was love at first crunch. The brown sugariness of the Lotus Biscoff biscuit (cookie) tapped into my inner child and it was all good.  

A Solid Addiction

Thus began my addiction to Lotus Biscoff biscuits.  A love for the taste and simple caramel-like chew of the cookies.  It seems almost impossible for a cookie to be both crisp and crunchy and slightly chewy at the same time.  

Wild-eyed and Bushy Tailed

Shortly after any early morning flight took off when the stewardesses were walking through the main cabin with their baskets of Biscoff goodness, I was usually the only person still wide awake with that wild look in my eyes trying to make eye contact with the first stewardess to make sure I got my first Biscoff hit.  And then I would ask for one more.

MIA Biscuits

After disembarking the flight and halfway to baggage claim, with that slight sticky flavor still stuck to the flats of my molars, I would still be “feenin” on the buggers.  Worst yet, back then if you tried to find them in a store they were MIA and mostly exclusive to flying.  Biscoffs became my new cost of entry on every Delta flight. 

Addiction Cured

I can’t recall the last time I actually ate a Biscoff as my loyalty to Delta dropped off a sheer cliff after Delta merged with Northwest.  That event led to a domino effect that included Delta reducing flight options out of my then-home airport of Cincinnati.  What had been Delta’s second-largest hub after Atlanta was no more and so was my Biscoff addiction.  I started flying Southwest.  Addiction cured.

Southwest Airlines Goes Bizarro Style

Of note:  Southwest now serves its own cookie crack;  Safe + Fair’s Remy's Cinnamon Grahams!   They are certified peanut-free Teddy Grahams for adults (and kids too) and the bizarro anti-hero cookies to Biscoff.  While Biscoff is a close cousin to shortbread cookies, Fair Remy’s is a closer cousin to American-style sugary cereal.  They are lighter and smaller than Biscoff, but surprisingly flavorful.  The next time I fly Southwest I may have to ask for a bowl, spoon, and carton of milk to go with my Remy’s, but this still does not excuse me from all things Biscoff.

The History of Biscoff

The history of Biscoff cookies goes back to Europe where the Biscoff or speculoos was a Belgian biscuit similar to a shortbread.  It has typically been made of wheat flour, oil, candy syrup (yes that stickiness), salt, and cinnamon.  These cookies were actually the peasant’s version as they were originally developed during a time when importing spices to Belgium was getting very expensive.  So unlike their spicier Dutch speculaas cousin, they were made with fewer ingredients to accommodate those who couldn't afford the pricier Dutch version.

Enter Lotus Bakeries

Lotus Bakeries, the makers of Biscoff, played the long game.  They created a paid sampling and demo program for their products with a captive audience on U.S. air flights.  Then they created pent-up demand as they teased us with limited distribution.  Nothing short of a transatlantic flight to Brussels could truly procure the biscuits outside of a U.S. flight.  Initially, they were not in broad U.S. distribution.  And now they have gone nuclear and provided us a Biscoff armageddon in red and white brand consistency packaging across ice cream bars to spread. 

Biscoff Ubiquity

Now I see Biscoff everywhere and in everything.  It is ubiquitous and I don’t think it's coincidental in any way.  The Biscoff Cookie Butter spread is pure “evil”.  People are all over social media mixing it into everything from their cocktails and martinis to next-level desserts.  Biscoff Cookie Butter spread can bring life to anything, even granola and grape nuts!  I am guessing Lotus’ marketing and sales teams have found the holy grail of co-branding collaborations in these little addictive biscuits.

Co-Brand Your Arse Off

Co-branding and collabs are not new.  When I was a dual-hatted Oral Care Sales Planner and Scope Brand Manager working on Procter & Gamble’s Crest brand in 2001, we were faced with a crisis from our biggest competitor.  Colgate had just launched the first antibacterial toothpaste.  I recall going into the deepest “bowels” of P&G’s suburban Cincinnati product development offices to talk to the great minds who created and guarded all of the toothpaste formulations.  After hours of brainstorming ideas, one researcher nonchalantly mentioned a formula that had been on the back burner.  It combined the flavor of Crest toothpaste with Scope mouthwash.  History is written as the Crest Whitening Plus Scope launch ended up being the most successful Crest toothpaste launch to that date and not only helped cement Crest’s position as the #1 U.S. share leader, it spawned a whole generation of P&G co-branding with the likes of other number one brands like Tide with Febreze. 

Frito Collabs Too!

Frito-Lay has also slayed the collabs, but they have a cheat code for access to the diverse universe of Pepsico brands and fast food spinoffs, especially in creating Frito snacks extensions into all things Taco Bell.  From Nachos Cheese Doritos Locos Tacos to the Beefy Crunch Burrito featuring Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. Then there is the more organic application of Cheetos Flamin’ Hot snacks to all things edible outside the Pepsico universe from sandwiches to pizzas in every other local restaurant and corner store bodega.  Like Biscoff, it not only shows up in Frito-Lay and Pepsico branded marketing, it also shows up on TikTok and IG.  It is like Frito has you surrounded.  You can’t escape its salty snack allure.

Can You Butter Your Shake?

Biscoff is on a whole different level now.  Overnight they are everywhere from taking advantage of adjacencies in Biscoff Cookie Butter spread and ice cream pints and bars.  What sparked me to write this piece was seeing a Del Taco email in my inbox for a Biscoff Cookie “Buttercup” Butter shake.  I live in San Diego where there is no shortage of excellent authentic Mexican food, but Del Taco is a fast food chain institution that is the bizarro anti-hero to Taco Bell and is owned by another Southern California favorite in Jack-in-the-Box.  Jack-in-the-Box is a burger chain that serves a random taco on its menu and Del Taco is a taco chain that serves a burger.  I digress.  Go figure!

The Long Game

This is what makes the whole Biscoff co-branded collaboration work.  It is stealthy and on the tail end of a longer game.  Each iteration feels authentic and not forced.  Lotus started at the top of the purchase funnel and methodically worked their way down and now they are at the point that they are nearly personalizing the message by their target at each step of their path to purchase.  Sometimes as brand marketers, we get big egos about our brands and think they always have to be the star. What makes Biscoff work is they know their role as the stealthy complement to a bigger show. When I worked at Coke, we had a Global Marketing Leadership meeting where they took us to dinner at an upscale mid-town Atlanta restaurant where a chef made us a multi-course meal with recipes infused with Coca-Cola from Coke marinated pork chops to Coca-Cola Cake. It was fantastic and Coke did not have to be the star, it was the supporting cast member because the whole meal was based on Coke's insight that Coke goes better with food versus its competition. I may no longer fly Delta, but I still have good food memories of those chewy biscuits and now when I see them mixed into other things I like; i.e. ice cream and martinis, they have my attention and my dollars.

It’s Biscoff’s World Now

I don’t see any obfuscation in co-branding and collaboration anytime soon and that could be a good thing.  We have a younger generation of millennials and Gen-Z that have been brought up on a steady diet of cross-collaborations from sneakers to electronics.  CPGs have been slow on the uptake, but witnessing Lotus Bakeries onslaught holds promise.  Whether you are trying to reach your target at the top of the purchase funnel to drive trial and awareness of your brand or close the sale with more conversion at the bottom, co-branded collaboration could be the thing for you.  Now if only Remy’s Cinnamon Grahams could make a cookie spread for my post-holiday meal martini!