Fans hungry for TO (the cereal and the man)
Bills player unveils toasted-oats product
FAIRPORT — Buffalo Bills fans are starved for a winner and a marquee star on their beloved team.
Is there any doubt they will step to the table to embrace Terrell “T. O.” Owens’ new cereal product?
The answer seemed obvious Thursday at a Tops Markets location just south of Rochester, where Owens’ new cereal — “TO’s” — was officially unveiled.
“Seeing this crowd, I’m very humbled by this situation,” Owens told a cheering crowd of about 400 fans in a packed corner of the grocery store. “Me being from Alexander City, Ala., being a small-town guy, having my face on a box of TO’s . . . this is better than being on a box of Wheaties to me.”
TO’s are a honey-nut toasted oat cereal that is produced by the same people who brought Flutie Flakes to Bills Nation.
PLB Sports, a product development food brokerage company based in Pittsburgh, hit a home run, to steal a baseball term, with Flutie Flakes 11 years ago. Introduced when quarterback Doug Flutie joined the Bills, Flutie Flakes sold 2.8 million boxes over a roughly two-year period.
“The goal then was to hopefully sell 25,000 boxes,” said PLB President Ty Ballou. “Eleven years later, nothing could replicate Flutie Flakes, not even
close. Nothing has done more than 20 percent of what Flutie Flakes did.”
Owens gives the Bills a big star like they have not had since Drew Bledsoe was the quarterback in 2004. Owens, in fact, is more accomplished on the field than Bledsoe. The 35-year-old Owens ranks second in NFL history in touchdown receptions and sixth in catches.
Hopes are high for a winning product.
“We have the right athlete and the right marketplace,” Ballou said. “T. O. certainly does a very good job of marketing himself, and it was a good fit. . . . I’m from Pittsburgh, and Bills fans truly are the greatest fans.”
“We expect to see very high demand for TOs,” said Tops CEO Frank Curci. “And in fact, we’ve sold over 11,000 boxes so far, and he hasn’t caught his first touchdown pass.”
The second most popular cereal PLB Sports has produced was Kurt Warner Crunch in St. Louis, named after the former quarterback of the Rams. That sold 350,000 boxes. The company produces numerous other athlete-related regional products, like Ben Roethlisberger beef jerky in Pittsburgh, Ed McCaffrey mustard in Denver and Dustin Pedroia salsa in Boston.
Roethlisberger is quarterback for the Pittsburg Steelers. McCaffrey, who retired in 2004, played wide receiver for the Denver Broncos. Pedroia is second baseman for the Boston Red Sox.
It didn’t take long for Ballou to recognize his new opportunity. The Bills’ signing of Owens happened on a Saturday in March. On Monday morning, two days later, Ballou pitched the idea to Drew Rosenhaus, Owens’ Miami-based agent.
“They took it to Terrell on Tuesday,” Ballou said. “They said, ‘We like it.’ I called Frank [Curci] at Tops the next day. Everything was done that week.”
The cereal only has been on shelves for a week. Tops is the exclusive retail outlet for the cereal. It also is available for sale online. Owens said (and a PLB employee confirmed) that one online customer from somewhere in Canada paid $140 in shipping to get two boxes of the cereal.
The 14-ounce box of TO’s sells for $2.50 with a Tops Bonus Card.
Owens clearly had fun introducing the product. He was streaming video of the news conference live on the Internet and keeping fans updated on his twitter account.
“It was exciting just to go through the photo process to put that beautiful, handsome face on the front of these boxes,” Owens said with a laugh.
Asked by a fan if the Bills would beat their nemesis, the New England Patriots, in the season opener on Sept. 14, Owens replied, “Trust me. Trust me when I say this: It’s not gonna be an easy game for New England. Trust me.”
Considering the Bills have lost 11 straight meetings with New England, even a close game with the Pats probably would be good for sales of TO’s.
mgaughan@buffnews.com "> email: mgaughan@buffnews.com
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