The marketers at Webb Candy Co., Rosemount, Minn., know how to get a buzz going. The company’s Hiya Mints’ lenticular package that makes the people pictured on the front of mint tins appear to wave (hiya, get it?) have been distributed at trendy events ranging from the MTV Music Video Awards in Miami to Fashion Week in New York City. At the latter event, the mints were billed as the “official mint” of designer Betsey Johnson’s 2006 Spring Collection. Recently, international recording artist Ana Cristina said she will be distributing Hiya Mints at her concerts nationwide and even volunteered to record a jingle for the whimsical brand.

Packaging for the liquid-filled mints has another unique attribute; the cardboard front of the packages can be pulled off easily to reveal a conversation-starting bit of trivia or a query such as, “If you had only six months to live, would you still vacuum?”

Company owner and CEO, Alan Webb, has plenty more planned to promote the fledgling product line, including national advertising. He’s also offering consumers the chance to create and purchase their own personalized Hiya Mints by uploading a digital photo on the Hiya Mints Website. (www.hiyamints.com.) The personalized mints are billed as perfect for wedding or bar mitzvah favors — or just something fun to hand out to friends. The packet with instructions for creating the customized mints will be sold in specialty gift stores, Webb reports.

PowerBar, a division of Nestlé S.A., has partnered with the World Triathlon Corporation, owners of the Ironman brand, for a three-year global sponsorship program. The deal designates PowerBar as the official Global Energy Bar and Energy Gel sponsor for all U.S. and international Ironman qualifying events, the Ironman 70.3 series and the Ford Ironman World Championship from 2006 through 2008.

Ironman endurance events are not for the faint-hearted or unconditioned. The triathlon consists of a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike ride and a 26.2-mile run completed in succession within a 17-hour timeframe. More than 50,000 athletes compete annually for slots in the Ford Ironman World Championship, which is held in Hawaii every October.

The marketing pros at Jelly Belly have created a national promotion designed to capitalize on consumers’ fascination with the flavors of Jelly Belly jelly beans.

Launching Jan. 2, 2006, and running through Aug. 31, 2006, the Jelly Belly Mystery Flavor promotion invites consumers to taste and guess the flavor of a new, “mysterious” Jelly Belly bean. The promotion will appear on millions of specially marked packages with the mystery flavor found inside every package along with promotional game pieces. To add to the fun, the mystery flavor will be shrouded in white with a big red question mark printed on each bean.

Promotion participants will be invited to enter online at www.JellyBelly.com, where they may help Mr. Jelly Belly search for clues to solve the mystery of the new flavor. A grand prize of $100,000 will be awarded; second place is a Royal Caribbean Mystery Cruise.

Guylian Chocolate is making a new shipper available to encourage trial of its individually wrapped Guylian Twists chocolates. Each miniature tent box/impulse pack holds four Twists in three flavors and has a suggested retail price of 99 cents.

The trial-size Guylian Twist shipper will be available February/March 2006.