The Last Square: Here’s how a chocolate brand encouraged consumers to “dare to be tender” in 2013! [Thursdays: Gorillas of Guerrilla Marketing]
Miles Everson’s Business Builder Daily speaks to the heart of what great marketers, business leaders, and other professionals need to succeed in advertising, communications, managing their investments, career strategy, and more.
A Note from Miles Everson:
As someone who’s been in the business and consulting industry for 30+ years now, I’ve seen how many brands reap the benefits of this particular marketing strategy:
Guerrilla Marketing.
According to Jay Conrad Levinson, the “Father of Guerrilla Marketing,” this strategy works because it’s engaging, easy to execute, and sometimes, inexpensive. Campaigns of this type not only make a huge impact but also stick to consumers’ minds.
Today, let’s talk about a fun and touching guerrilla marketing campaign.
Read the article below to find out how a chocolate company effectively communicated its brand message and connected with its target market in November 2013.
Miles Everson
CEO, MBO Partners
Chairman of the Advisory Board, The I Institute
Gorillas of Guerrilla Marketing
These are some of the popular chocolate brands in the world. They are known not only for satisfying the cravings of those with a sweet tooth but also for their “sweet” and engaging marketing campaigns to capture consumers’ attention.
Another brand that’s well-loved by lots of chocolate lovers from all over the world?
Milka!
Photo from Dreamstime.com
Milka is a brand of chocolate confectionery originally manufactured in Switzerland in 1901. Its products include toffees, cocoa spread, and chocolate-covered cookies and biscuits. The chocolates are usually sold in bars and several novelty shapes during holidays.
The brand’s name is a portmanteau of the confectionery’s two main ingredients: “Milch” (milk) and “Kakao” (cocoa). These ingredients give Milka products their iconic tender chocolate melt.
Saving The Last Milka Square
Milka believes the sweetest part of a chocolate bar is the last piece. It’s the one you almost wouldn’t want to give away. It’s the moment when those who are eating the confectionery together observe each other’s body language to see who’s getting the last bite.
Using this insight, Milka decided to conduct a guerrilla marketing experiment about this concept in France and Germany in November 2013.
With the help of French marketing agency Buzzman, the brand kept the last pieces of its chocolate bars to itself.
The name of the campaign?
“The Last Square!”
Photo from Buzzman
The goal of the campaign was to reinforce Milka’s slogan, “Dare To Be Tender,” and put Europeans’ generosity to the test.
These were the things Milka did during the brand activation:
The brand changed its entire production line—from molding to packaging—to remove one square from over 13 million chocolate bars.
Then, to test the French and German markets’ tenderness and generosity, Milka gave consumers a tough choice…
The campaign team created a microsite where participants could get their last square by registering the code from a Milka chocolate bar’s packaging. After inputting the code, they were directed to a landing page where they were given the option to keep the remaining piece for themselves or send it to family or a friend.
Those who chose the latter were allowed to send a personalized message together with their small, sweet, and tender gift.
The recipients of the last squares appreciated the thoughtful and generous act. Seeing the senders’ names below the personalized messages instantly put smiles on their faces.
Such a tender and heartwarming gift!
The campaign lasted until the end of December 2013. Milka’s marketing team also created a 2-minute video about the guerrilla marketing experiment to expand its reach beyond the borders of France and Germany.
Was Milka’s “The Last Square” campaign effective?
The guerrilla marketing experiment worked!
The campaign’s theme of tenderness resonated with different types of consumers—from chocolate lovers to those who simply wanted to express their care, appreciation, and love for family and friends.
Below are the results of Milka’s “The Last Square” campaign:
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In just two months:
– Milka recorded 800,000+ visits on the campaign’s microsite.
– Over 500,000 last squares were sent to participants’ loved ones.
– The campaign garnered EUR 1.3 million in earned media.
– Around 500 articles about the campaign were published in 158 countries.
– The campaign video got over 3 million views on YouTube.
– Over 65 million people were reached by the campaign both online (social media) and offline (buying the chocolate bars and sending the last squares to someone else).
- Milka’s chocolate bars sales increased by 33% during the campaign.
- Milka’s “The Last Square” campaign received CLIO Awards under the “Integrated Campaign,” “Content and Contact,” “Innovative Marketing,” and “Direct Marketing” categories.
Clearly, these results show that the chocolate brand’s guerrilla marketing stunt was successful in reinforcing its message and interacting with its target audience!
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The guerrilla marketing stunt was a great move by Milka because it helped the company gain millions of loyal customers and drastically increase its sales.
By conducting something like a find-the-missing-piece game, “The Last Square” captured French and German customers’ attention and compelled them to participate in the experiment.
What’s more?
Through incorporating its “Dare To Be Tender” slogan in its guerrilla marketing tactic, Milka made a positive influence on its target market’s lives.
After the duration of the campaign, many of the participants said that while it’s great to keep the last square to themselves, they realized that nothing compared to the wonderful feeling of letting go of that piece and sharing it with someone they care about.
Let’s give a round of applause to Milka and Buzzman!
Their “The Last Square” campaign showed the importance and positive impacts of creatively and imaginatively communicating a brand’s value/s, and actually letting consumers experience a brand’s message in real life.
Would you dare to share your “last square?”
(This article is from The Business Builder Daily, a newsletter by The I Institute in collaboration with MBO Partners.)
About The Dynamic Marketing Communiqué’s
“Thursdays: Gorillas of Guerrilla Marketing”
Jay Conrad Levinson (1984) said that Guerrilla Marketing “works because it’s simple to appreciate, easy to execute, and inexpensive.”
Guerrilla Marketing is unconventional.
Looking beyond the traditional ways of advertising, marketers, and advertisers need to spice things up in order for their brand to have campaigns that not only make an impact but also stick to their target market’s mind.
Guerrilla Marketing usually aims to have direct contact with consumers.
This type of direct contact should spark an emotional reaction that leads to consumers effectively remembering the brand.
It’s about making a big impression and making that impression last a long time (if not forever).
Guerrilla Marketing can be inexpensive.
The effect of this is being able to create a buzz around the brand, and the strategy used to market it. Almost everything is passed around through word-of-mouth.
Word-of-mouth is one of the greatest outcomes and it usually doesn’t cost anything.
This is every business’ or brand’s dream!
Every Friday, we publish tips, examples, and other useful content on unconventional ways of marketing and promotion.
Learn more about how to grab your target market’s attention and make an amazing first and lasting impression without having to spend a lot of money.
Businesses don’t really need to spend much for a guerrilla campaign. You do not need a big budget to be successful. You just need creativity and a good imagination.
Hope you’ve found this week’s guerrilla marketing insight interesting and helpful.
Stay tuned for next Thursday’s Gorillas of Guerrilla Marketing!
Cheers,
Kyle Yu
Head of Marketing
Valens Dynamic Marketing Capabilities
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