2013 Silver Best Creative Solution or Innovation

Client Beyond Dark

How did the campaign make a difference? This newcomer aimed to take a bigger bite of the dark chocolate market with the first scientifically accredited scale for measuring pleasure. Huge coverage and over 7,000 new Twitter followers helped Beyond Dark top UK search rankings for 'dark chocolate' and persuaded one of the UK's biggest retailers to double distribution. Sales increased by 327% in two months.

What details of the strategy make this a winning entry? Beyond Dark noticed none of its rivals owned Pleasure: the very reason we eat chocolate. So it set out to make its little drops famous for this. The challenge was to own this space in a way that felt believable and newsworthy. The strategy was to prove that Beyond Dark gives more pleasure. Doing this in a newsworthy and entertaining way would generate substantial PR and increase awareness. Online, the brand would bait inbound links to Beyond Dark, pushing it up Google searches for dark chocolate. And most importantly, the brand would take a fresh brand territory: pleasure – the perfect one to own.

How did creativity bring the strategy to life? For centuries philosophers have proposed a theoretical scale for measuring pleasure (the Hedon) but it had remained nothing more than an idea. Beyond Dark embarked on a mission to make it a reality, and prove its pleasure credentials by measuring other lovely moments in life – and of course rival brands – against drops of Beyond Dark chocolate, making them the measure of pleasure. The pleasure scale would need to be scientifically credible, so Beyond Dark teamed up with neuroscientists to hold a pleasure study. 100 participants were fitted with the latest EEG brainwave-reading headsets, set up to analyse pleasure. They took a series of tests: blowing bubbles, stroking kittens, beautiful music... A documentary and news were released on 'Blue Monday' (the nation's most depressing day). These became the advertising, from outdoor to the pack itself. For once, a brand's emotional claims had been proven.

Results Consumers, foodies, scientists and marketers discussed this ground-breaking experiment. Sales immediately surged 50% on the day of the news. Within a month, coverage reached 142,000,000+ views across TV, national, regional, trade and online publications, and Twitter followers soared from 145 to over 7,000. Over 2,000 websites linked to the site, propelling Beyond Dark from page 22 to the top of UK search rankings for 'dark chocolate'. The publicity persuaded Sainsbury to double distribution and take two new flavours. Plus several new distributors came on board, including Harrods and 850 independents. After two months sales had risen by 327%.