Mars, Incorporated announced on April 13, 2026 the launch of TWIX Bits, a new poppable format of the TWIX candy bar, now available at retailers nationwide. The launch is paired with a celebrity partnership with LiAngelo Ball, described in the announcement as a platinum-certified rapper and former professional basketball player, and a consumer sweepstakes running from April 13 to April 27 offering one winner $2,000 and a “Two-Way Contract.” TWIX is a brand under Mars, Incorporated, a $65 billion family-owned business headquartered in Newark, New Jersey. Martin Terwilliger, Marketing Vice President of Mars Snacking, is the company spokesperson for this launch.
The Product: TWIX Bits
TWIX Bits translate the TWIX bar’s three-component structure, chocolate coating, caramel layer, and cookie base, into a single poppable bite-size format. The announcement describes the product as delivering the creamy chocolatey caramel taste and crunchy cookie of TWIX in one piece rather than in bar form. No pricing or specific pack size is disclosed in the press release. The product is available now at retailers nationwide.
The TWIX bar has a well-established identity built around two bars in one pack, a format the brand has maintained as a marketing pillar for decades. TWIX Bits extends the “two” brand concept into a new consumption format without changing the underlying ingredient architecture. The creamy and crunchy duality that defines the bar becomes the single-bite promise of the Bits format.
The Campaign: Two-Way Contract
The marketing campaign is structured entirely around the concept of duality, using the phrase “Two Is More Than One” as its central brand expression. The campaign has two components: the LiAngelo Ball partnership and the consumer sweepstakes.
LiAngelo Ball is positioned in the announcement as a double-threat figure, a former professional basketball player who became a platinum-certified recording artist after his basketball career. Mars frames the partnership as TWIX signing Ball to his first-ever “Two-Way Contract,” a term borrowed from professional basketball where a player holds contracts with both an NBA team and its G League affiliate. The borrowed sports contract terminology maps directly onto the TWIX brand’s two-identity narrative: Ball has two careers, TWIX has two bars, TWIX Bits have two textures.
Ball stated in the announcement:
“My life has been about having multiple passions, and from the court to the studio, I’ve always aspired to be the best at both. TWIX is on the same vibe with that creamy, crunchy combo, so this partnership was a no-brainer.”
The consumer sweepstakes runs from April 13 to April 27 at TWIX.com/bits. Entrants describe their own dual talents in 50 words or less for a standard entry. For double entries, they can post their two talents on Instagram and TikTok using #TwixBitsSweepstakes and tagging @TWIX. One winner receives $2,000 and their own Two-Way Contract.
The campaign cites a 2025 Civic Science Study finding that 89% of Americans are actively pursuing a surprising passion or unexpected talent, providing third-party data to anchor the dual-talent narrative in a consumer behavior finding rather than brand assertion alone.
The Poppable Candy Format and What It Represents for Mars
TWIX Bits joins a broader pattern of established chocolate candy bars being reformatted into poppable or bite-size SKUs for mass retail. The poppable format serves several strategic purposes simultaneously. It creates a new consumption occasion for the TWIX brand: single-serve sharing, snack bowl situations, and movie theater-style eating that the standard two-bar pack is less suited for. It extends the TWIX brand into the candy bag segment, where products like M&M’s, Reese’s Pieces, and Skittles already generate significant volume, without cannibalizing the existing bar format. And it gives Mars a new retail placement opportunity in the resealable bag candy aisle alongside other Mars poppable products.
For confectionery co-manufacturers and ingredient suppliers watching Mars’s product development pipeline, the Bits format is also technically more complex than it may appear. Maintaining the three-component architecture of TWIX (chocolate, caramel, cookie) in a small poppable piece requires that each component perform correctly at a much smaller scale and in a format where the consumer bites through the entire piece at once rather than breaking off sections of a bar. The cookie base in particular must maintain structural integrity as a small unit, the caramel must flow at the right consistency without causing the pieces to stick together in the bag, and the chocolate coating must be thick enough to provide sensory impact at the reduced surface area of a bite-size piece.
Why It Matters for Confectionery Ingredient and Co-Manufacturing Suppliers
The TWIX Bits launch adds a third product architecture to the TWIX portfolio alongside the standard two-bar pack and TWIX Minis, creating sustained demand for small-format confectionery ingredient inputs across all three SKU sizes. Each TWIX format requires cookie wafer production at a specific size and thickness, caramel at a specific viscosity calibrated for that format’s bite structure, and compound or enrobing chocolate at a coating weight appropriate for the surface-area-to-volume ratio of each piece. The Bits format, because of its smaller size, requires a relatively higher chocolate-to-interior ratio than the standard bar to deliver comparable sensory impact. For compound chocolate suppliers and enrobing system manufacturers serving Mars’s production facilities, a new small-format SKU at the scale TWIX commands represents a meaningful shift in the specification and volume requirements for coating inputs.
The LiAngelo Ball partnership reflects Mars’s strategy of using culturally relevant but non-mainstream celebrities for confectionery launches, a pattern that generates high social media engagement without the premium cost of top-tier celebrity endorsements. Ball’s public profile is built primarily on TikTok and music streaming rather than traditional media, and his story arc from basketball prospect to platinum music artist is genuinely aligned with the dual-talent narrative TWIX is selling. For confectionery brands and private label operators evaluating celebrity partnership models, the TWIX and Ball collaboration demonstrates that a precisely narrative-matched public figure at mid-tier celebrity status can carry a confectionery launch campaign more effectively than a high-cost mainstream celebrity whose personal narrative has no connection to the product positioning.
The two-week sweepstakes window with a $2,000 cash prize is calibrated for high-volume social media entry rather than deep brand engagement. The entry mechanic (50 words or less about your dual talents, plus optional social post) requires low effort and delivers a clear value proposition for participation. The #TwixBitsSweepstakes tag and @TWIX mention requirement on Instagram and TikTok generate organic branded social content from entrants during the sweepstakes window. For Mars, the campaign architecture converts consumer entries directly into user-generated content at scale while the sweepstakes runs, creating a two-week social amplification layer around the Bits launch that extends the press release’s earned media reach into organic social reach.
Other News
While leveraging niche, internet-famous athletes like LiAngelo Ball is a brilliant, culture-forward strategy for driving highly targeted digital engagement and self-aware brand buzz, Mars knows that total category dominance also requires undeniable, mainstream retail visibility. To balance these clever, micro-targeted cultural plays with broad, national volume, the snacking giant simultaneously deploys blockbuster, macro-level sports partnerships. Perfectly demonstrating this dual-pronged approach to the 2026 sports calendar, Mars recently collaborated to launch an expansive lineup of limited-edition packaging and snacks in partnership with the U.S. Soccer Federation. For CPG brand managers and sports marketers, comparing these two distinct campaigns reveals the ultimate playbook: actively winning the internet through agile, niche athlete endorsements while aggressively capturing the everyday grocery shopper through massive, globally scaled federation sponsorships.
While TWIX Bits are the perfect bite-sized treat for your everyday snacking and game-day spreads, Mars is already gearing up for the biggest candy holiday of the year. If you love that classic cookie-and-caramel combo but want it with a festive twist, the confectionery giant has just unveiled its Halfway to Halloween lineup. Discover the new TWIX Skulls and other terrifyingly sweet treats in our coverage of the Mars Halloween 2026 Candy Lineup.
FAQs
What are TWIX Bits? A new poppable format of the TWIX candy bar, delivering the brand’s creamy chocolatey caramel and crunchy cookie combination in a single bite-size piece. Available now at retailers nationwide. Announced by Mars, Incorporated on April 13, 2026.
Who is LiAngelo Ball? A platinum-certified rapper and former professional basketball player, signed by TWIX to a “Two-Way Contract” as the campaign’s celebrity partner, reflecting the brand’s dual-talent theme.
What is the TWIX Two-Way Contract sweepstakes? Consumers can enter at TWIX.com/bits from April 13 to April 27 by describing their own dual talents in 50 words or less. The winner receives $2,000 and a Two-Way Contract. Double entries available by posting on Instagram and TikTok with #TwixBitsSweepstakes and tagging @TWIX.
What data supports the campaign’s dual-talent theme? A 2025 Civic Science Study finding that 89% of Americans are actively pursuing a surprising passion or unexpected talent.
Who makes TWIX? Mars, Incorporated, a $65 billion family-owned business producing brands including M&M’s, Snickers, Pringles, Cheez-It, and Royal Canin across more than 170,000 associates worldwide.
About Source86
TWIX Bits represents the latest expansion of Mars’s poppable confectionery portfolio, creating sustained sourcing requirements for small-format cookie wafer bases engineered for bite-size structural integrity, caramel systems calibrated for poppable piece consistency without inter-piece adhesion, compound chocolate and enrobing inputs at coating weights appropriate for small-format surface-area-to-volume ratios, and flexible packaging formats for resealable bag confectionery applications. At Source86, we connect confectionery manufacturers, chocolate and caramel ingredient suppliers, and co-packing operations with trusted bulk and wholesale sourcing partners for cookie wafer inputs, caramel and toffee systems, compound chocolate and enrobing compounds, and flexible packaging solutions that power bite-size and poppable candy innovation at commercial scale across mass retail and convenience channels.
Whether your production team sources bulk caramel systems for a poppable confectionery application, compound chocolate for a bite-size enrobing program, or specialty cookie wafer inputs for a small-format candy build, Source86 is your bridge to the right manufacturing and supply chain partners. Contact Source86 today to start your sourcing search.
