Children and parents in London during the anticipation of 2007 Easter celebrated the occasion in a rather unique way, courtesy of British chocolaterie Thorntons.
Free chocolate! Each of these words has a compelling effect on people – we jump at the word “free” and most people like chocolate, so you can guess what the reaction to this announcement was.
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In an attempt to recuperate from the humble numbers of the 2006 Christmas sales, Thortons unveiled the world’s first edible chocolate billboard which was stripped and eaten within 3hours of going up. This magnificent 14.5 ft by 9.5 ft billboard was made of 860 pounds of pure chocolate in the form of 10 chocolate bunnies, 72 giant chocolate eggs and 128 chocolate panels. According to Drew’s Marketing Minute, there are 5 simple rules for outdoor advertising – one of which is “leave the [bill]boards up for a minimum of 30 days to achieve frequency goals. Obviously Thortons was unable to achieve this particular rule, but I think the company achieved the substantial interest and consumer awareness that it was vying for because even if you weren’t able to share the chocolately goodness, the news and bloggers went viral about this unprecedented display of advertising.
The chocolate billboard was surely eye-catching and drool-worthy, but I’m not sure how I feel about picking at chocolate panels that who knows how many other people have touched and eaten. There was no opportunity to do a dry run of their edible display to gauge the public’s response, but Thortons had done their research. U.K. trade group Food From Britain identified the British to have the third highest per capita consumption of chocolate globally so Thortons had reason to predict that passerbys would respond positively to their marketing efforts – which is what happened.
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