The Hershey Company is taking the viral ‘sensemaxxing’ trend to a new level with premium products that promise to elevate indulgence at an affordable price, a new campaign focused on “the delightful difference a little extra can make,” and high-profile collaborations and campaigns that take its brands beyond the grocery aisle.
The Specialty Food Association declared “sensemaxxing” the top trend of 2026 – positioning it as a “digital antidote” and rejection of smooth, neutral and boring foods in favor loud, visceral experiences that layer taste, texture, sound and visual elements for maximum intensity to “verify reality” and remind us we are human.
And The Hershey Company is all in on the trend with product launches and immersive marketing campaigns designed to make new and familiar brands feel more distinctive, culturally relevant and experiential, while still keeping them within reach of the everyday consumer.
The result is a strategy built around a deceptively simple idea: Sometimes “a little extra” can make an ordinary moment feel like something more.
“At Hershey, premium doesn’t mean exclusive. It means delivering more elevated experience through flavor, texture, quality and brand engagement while remaining attainable for everyday consumers,” Susanne Prucha, VP of CMG marketing at The Hershey Company, writes in a recent blog post.
“We call this accessible premium: products and experiences that allow consumers to trade up while staying true to our belief that everyday luxuries should be available to more people,” she added.
Creme of the crop
The company’s new Creme bars tap into the experiential intensity promised by sensemaxxing by filling a thin milk chocolate shell with two layers – one gooey and one creamy – for a triple texture treat that begins with the snap of the chocolate for an acoustic effect before the rich combination of Creme and caramel flood the palate.
Available in two flavors – Italian-inspired Affogato with espresso-flavored caramel and vanilla cream filling and Salted Caramel Creme – the Creme bars were created to feel “elevated, expressive and worth talking about, while remaining approachable,” Prucha wrote.
The company teamed with the girl group Katseye to promote the bar with the singers’ “signature” pinky up gesture, a playful imitation of high-class elegance and proper manners. For Katseye, the gesture is an “expression of choosing happiness for yourself,” according to Hershey. For Hershey it teases at company’s goal of elevating the everyday.
The pairing gives Hershey a way to play with the tension at the heart of its accessible-premium strategy: making something feel elevated without making it feel out of reach.
Cadbury offers ‘magic in more’
Hershey’s new campaign for Cadbury takes the idea of elevated and accessible in a different direction with a collaboration with fashion designer LUAR that brought the brand to the runway during New York Fashion Week on Sept. 14 in the form of a Swarovski crystal encrusted purple and gold clutch.
The company held a sweepstakes to give two of the five handmade clutches to consumers “who give a little more” and “brighten others’ lives and two clutches to the people who nominated them.
The glitzy gesture marks the beginning of Hershey’s new Cadbury campaign – “There’s Magic in More,” which the company says is the brand’s largest US effort to date and highlights Cadbury’s ethos of “bringing a little more to every bite, from its signature creamy chocolate to generous ingredients crafted for sharing.”
The campaign also strives to remind US consumers, who predominately associate Cadbury with Easter, that the products are available year-round as a “luxurious brand at an accessible price point,” Prucha said.
“Recently, we’ve seen consumer appreciation for the brand growing, so we’re reintroducing it to make sure consumers understand the magic that comes in a brand that celebrates generosity,” she said.
She added “the renewed focus is backed by momentum” with Cadbury growing at an 11.4% compound average growth rate for the past four years, Prucha said.
The size of the prize
Hershey’s efforts to elevate its brands and offerings is part of a larger bid to reach premium-seeking consumers and tap into the global premium food market, which it says surpasses $573 billion a year and is “growing steadily, driven by the increased purchasing power of Gen Z.”
The business sees itself as a “challenger on the premium front,” and therefore plans to tear a page from the “disruptive playbook that’s worked wonders for us with brands like Dot’s Homestyle Pretzels, SkinnyPop, Sour Strips and LesserEvil,” according to Prucha.
“By taking a social-forward approach with Hershey’s Creme and Cadbury, our aim is to engage consumers in an authentic way,” and give consumers “more reasons to savor, and celebrate, every day,” she explained.
