Today Kraft Foods’ Stride is launching a new TV campaign by JWT, New York, starring extreme sports star Shaun White. The ‘cool’ teenager-oriented gum has redesigned its packaging, improved flavors and upgraded its name to Stride 2.0.—another excitement point for crazy about tech gadget youngsters.

«Gum is social currency, it just is. And so the latest and greatest gum that’s out there is something this consumer base wants to get their hands on,» Maurice Herrera, Kraft Foods senior director for U.S. gum marketing said. «We constantly need to entertain and even look to ways of reinventing ourselves so we maintain their loyalty and interest level.»

According to AdAge, Stride’s biggest competitor might be the new Wrigley’s 5 gum. The brand launched in 2007 and has broke up a record on the sales charts due to its chic black packaging and image-based ‘stimulate your senses’ campaign. A year earlier Stride was getting all the buzz when it launched with its hip reclosable packs and cool-sounding flavors like Winterblue, Uber Bubble and Mega Mystery. Earlier this year, Stride launched Stride Spark, which comes in two flavors, called Kinetic Mint and Kinetic Fruit, infused with vitamins B6 and B12.

However, Mars owned Wrigley’s Extra surpassed Stride. In April Wrigley’s Extra had 8.28% share compared with 7.44% for Stride, while Wrigley’s 5 had sales jump by 3% and now has 12.84% share. The No. 2 brand, Kraft’s Trident has 12.95% share and Wrigley’s Orbit is the top gum with 15.2% share.

Now Stride is counting on snowboarding and skateboarding legend Shaun White featuring the dynamic TV-ad to bring it some new wave, while enhancing its position as a ‘ridiculously long-lasting gum.’

Stride 2.0 still comes in the same 15 flavors as the earlier version, but eight of the flavors have been improved to give a better ‘chewing experience and taste profile,’ Mr. Herrera said. All the differences between Stride and Stride 2.0 are explained on Facebook.

Stride 2.0 Launch Spot from Tom Christmann on Vimeo.