“The next big business owners are going to be content creators,” Jamie Laing, the reality star-turned-sweet entrepreneur, tells Fortune. “I don’t think Coca-Cola can really come up any more without a content creator helping build the brand.”
Those may sound like fighting words from—surprise, surprise—a content creator. But there are signs the future may one day belong to brands with faces, not logos and legacy.
Laing founded Candy Kittens, the premium vegan sweets brand, with his business partner Ed Williams 15 years ago. Today, it reportedly generates £15m in annual revenue. The colorful, aesthetically packaged, cat-shaped gummies sit on the shelves of Tesco and Sainsbury’s alongside products from confectionery giants that have dominated the aisles for generations.
For decades, companies such as Mars—which generates $50bn in annual sales—and Nestlé, with CHF 90bn ($113.1bn), built their empires through mass advertising and distribution. Candy Kittens is not about to topple either of them, but it’s doing a good job of winning shelf space, consumer attention, and market share without the mega marketing machine that made those giants.
Once a novelty side project for a reality TV personality, Candy Kittens has grown into a credible challenger brand.
