Man Cereal
Launch Studio
D2C
An unexpected take on a TikTok-native format that brings some balls back to breakfast.
An unexpected take on a TikTok-native format that brings some balls back to breakfast.
Services
Launch Studio, Video Production, Influencer, Social Strategy
Timeline
6 Weeks
The Challenge
The Challenge
Cereal is one of the most crowded and expensive categories in consumer marketing.
It’s dominated by giants like General Mills and Procter & Gamble, behind household brands like Frosted Flakes, Cheerios, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, and Reese’s Puffs — companies with decades of brand equity and budgets that dwarf any startup.
At the same time, Man Cereal is deliberately polarizing. The name alone signals a specific audience — fitness-focused men who had largely written cereal off years ago as nutritionally empty.
So Man Cereal faces a double bind:
Competing in a category owned by legacy giants
Re-introducing cereal to an audience that has decided it's no longer part of their lifestyle
Any attempt to explain ingredients, macros, or benefits would get scrolled past instantly — either drowned out by incumbents or ignored by a skeptical audience.
Cereal is one of the most crowded and expensive categories in consumer marketing.
It’s dominated by giants like General Mills and Procter & Gamble, behind household brands like Frosted Flakes, Cheerios, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, and Reese’s Puffs — companies with decades of brand equity and budgets that dwarf any startup.
At the same time, Man Cereal is deliberately polarizing. The name alone signals a specific audience — fitness-focused men who had largely written cereal off years ago as nutritionally empty.
So Man Cereal faces a double bind:
Competing in a category owned by legacy giants
Re-introducing cereal to an audience that has decided it's no longer part of their lifestyle
Any attempt to explain ingredients, macros, or benefits would get scrolled past instantly — either drowned out by incumbents or ignored by a skeptical audience.
The Solution
The Solution
The Solution
We created an ad that didn't mention Man Cereal for the first 61 seconds.
Instead of opening with branding or product claims, we borrowed a TikTok-native format already proven to capture attention: the “unexpected edit.” Popularized by sports creators, the format builds familiarity through narration before abruptly subverting expectations with a hard tonal and visual turn.
We identified a creator whose aggressive delivery and audience overlapped directly with Man Cereal’s target, and wrote the script specifically for him. The voiceover opens with nostalgia — Saturday morning as a kid, childhood cartoons, a big bowl of cereal — before flipping the premise entirely. Breakfast has gone soft. Everything has been watered down.
Then the turn at the 1:01 mark. HOOOOOOOOOLY SH!T IT'S MAN CEREAL.
The result was an ad that behaved (and performed) like viral content — engineered to surprise viewers who thought they knew where it was going.
From there, we treated the launch as a system, not a post. To drive instant organic traction, we seeded the video with niche influencers and layered in engagement incentives — including a public promise to send an influencer to Diamond Gym if the campaign hit specific engagement thresholds.
We created an ad that didn't mention Man Cereal for the first 61 seconds.
Instead of opening with branding or product claims, we borrowed a TikTok-native format already proven to capture attention: the “unexpected edit.” Popularized by sports creators, the format builds familiarity through narration before abruptly subverting expectations with a hard tonal and visual turn.
We identified a creator whose aggressive delivery and audience overlapped directly with Man Cereal’s target, and wrote the script specifically for him. The voiceover opens with nostalgia — Saturday morning as a kid, childhood cartoons, a big bowl of cereal — before flipping the premise entirely. Breakfast has gone soft. Everything has been watered down.
Then the turn at the 1:01 mark. HOOOOOOOOOLY SH!T IT'S MAN CEREAL.
The result was an ad that behaved (and performed) like viral content — engineered to surprise viewers who thought they knew where it was going.
From there, we treated the launch as a system, not a post. To drive instant organic traction, we seeded the video with niche influencers and layered in engagement incentives — including a public promise to send an influencer to Diamond Gym if the campaign hit specific engagement thresholds.
The Results
The Results
The Results
Despite having less than 10k followers across social platforms, the video quickly racked up over a quarter million organic views. It was a major hit, and if you don't believe us — check the comments:
Despite having less than 10k followers across social platforms, the video quickly racked up over a quarter million organic views. It was a major hit, and if you don't believe us — check the comments:
Dejan Rankovic
Founder & CEO of Man Cereal
The Trash team deeply understands culture and how to leverage it to drive real growth for a brand. Truly a rare blend.
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Dejan Rankovic
Founder & CEO of Man Cereal
