Ferrero's Baby Ruth brand, the candy bar known for its dry roasted peanuts, caramel, and nougat, is teaming up with the New York Yankees for another season to bring back the Baby Ruth milkshake as a partner for the 2024 season.
To learn more about the partnership, we reached out to Kalyn Flournoy, Baby Ruth brand manager, Ferrero.
Liz Parker: How many years has Baby Ruth partnered with the Yankees?
Kalyn Flournoy: Though Baby Ruth has an extensive history with baseball, this is only year two of our partnership with the New York Yankees. Because this partnership is such a natural fit with the brand, it’s been a huge hit with consumers, and we’ve turned that overwhelmingly positive feedback into an even bigger and better program for the 2024 season. We’re excited for fans to get another round of the Baby Ruth experience, including the return of our exclusive Baby Ruth milkshake at Legends Stadium (one of the best sellers last season!), enjoying the second annual fireworks night for the 4th of July sponsored by the brand, delicious treats, exciting sweepstakes prizes and more.
LP: How did the brand come up with the idea for the Pinstripe Bar and why did it decide to partner with 7-Eleven for the Bar?
KF: Coming off the success of our Baby Ruth Milkshake from our year one of our New York Yankees partnership, we were eager to find a way to expand our offerings with other fun desserts to give consumers even more ways to enjoy Baby Ruth. During this time, we were also looking to expand the retail arm of our program and after connecting with the 7-Eleven team, landed on the idea of the Baby Ruth Pinstripe Bar. In all our food service products, it’s important that we maintain the essence of the candy bar, highlighting the whole, roasted peanuts, chewy caramel, and soft nougat, and we were able to achieve just that with our Pinstripe Bar.
The Baby Ruth Pinstripe Bar features a peanut and chocolate buttercream, vanilla icing, and navy blue sprinkles, chocolate drizzle, and Baby Ruth candy pieces as a topper. The bar hit select 7-Eleven stores in the New York Area on April 1, just in the times for the Yankees season home opener.
With Baby Ruth, we strive to find inroads to create these custom programs with our retailer partners. Bringing new and memorable ways for fans to enjoy baby Ruth at their go-to local convenience store is a big part of that, and we’re already seeing positive reactions from both consumers and our partners saying just that.
LP: How did the brand come up with the idea for the Baby Ruth Milkshake?
KF: Enjoying tasty treats and snacks while enjoying your favorite pastime go hand in hand, and both the Yankees and Baby Ruth share the desire to bring something innovative and, most importantly, delicious to baseball and chocolate fans alike. It was through that mutual desire that we partnered on a foodservice item that would ultimately end up being one of their top sellers last season. We toyed with a few different options and landed on the milkshake, a cool summer treat that fit well with baseball and easily maintained the essence of the brand and our ingredients.
The Baby Ruth Milkshake was such a hit that it’s back by popular demand. A mouth-watering mix of creamy chocolate ice cream, chocolate sprinkles, caramel drizzle, whipped cream and topped with a Baby Ruth bar, this is the new way to enjoy peanuts while watching America’s favorite pastime.
LP: What’s next for the brand?
KF: We’re really excited with what we’ve been able to do with this partnership with the New York Yankees and are continually working on ways to expand our footprint in the baseball world to bring more food service programs to life and expand our retail partnerships. Be sure to stay tuned on our socials @BabyRuthBar to learn what’s next, new, and exciting for this iconic candy bar!
Ferrero Group is on the current Candy Industry “Global Top 100 Candy Companies” list. Click here to view the current “Global Top 100” rankings.
