Campaign Green & Black’s Ultimate
Advent Calendar
Client Green & Black’s
PR Team Phipps PR
Timescale May–December 2006
Budget £50,000
Objectives
To step up Green & Black’s editorial presence at Christmas. To ensure a high profile, luxury position in glossy magazines, newspapers and broadcast media.
Strategy and plan
Phipps recommended producing a one-off, themed, high-value item to create a reason to talk about Green & Black’s as an ultimate Christmas gift. The idea was the ‘ultimate luxury advent calendar’, blowing every other chocolate advent calendar out of the water and reinforcing Green & Black’s as the most luxurious chocolate brand.
The four-foot-tall calendar was carved from ethically sourced Walnut and Burr Elm with 24 secret compartments. It was displayed in the Harrods chocolate room, with a price tag of £30,000. The money would go to Green & Black’s Maya Gold project supporting Fairtrade cocoa farmers in Belize.
Phipps began to approach long-lead titles in June. The expense of the piece allowed the agency to target publications that would ordinarily be out of reach for a chocolate company. The calendar was sold to GMTV as the ultimate gift for ‘the celebrity who has everything’.
Measurement and evaluation
The campaign resulted in 32 pieces of coverage, including a place in Vogue’s Top Ten 2007 ‘It List’, a full page in The Saturday Telegraph Magazine, a 90-second feature on ITV’s LK Today and coverage in 13 glossy consumer magazines.
Results
According to Metrica, it reached more than five million adults 1.5 times, and produced a ROI of 5:1.
Summer Nocon of The Saturday Telegraph Magazine says: ‘We look for something that has a design element and a story behind it – the Green & Black’s Advent Calendar fitted the bill and as the proceeds went to charity, it completed the perfect Christmas story.’
