“Be Radical, Choose Equality” is the message from UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) and the FairChain Foundation for the launch of The Other Bar, a chocolate bar that challenged consumers to take direct action against poverty.
Launched in the UK in November 2019, this experiment piloted a new way of doing business with developing-world producers, who typically get a raw deal from western corporations.
Farmers get 3% of the value of the cocoa used to make chocolate, which means most cocoa farmers don’t earn living incomes. The Other Bar ensures farmers are paid prices that meet real income needs.
Inside every pack is a blockchain token that has real value – when scanned it’s equivalent to a 1/4 of a cocoa-producing tree. For every four bars a farmer can grow more and earn more thanks to a fairer system. The twist is that the token can also be used as money off the next purchase - consumer choice. Either way the farmer benefits – that’s Radical Equality in action.
Available in milk or dark chocolate, The Other Bar was made from pure, organic Ecuadorian cocoa - the world’s best. Each pack contained two 50g bars with a limited edition run of The Other Bar sold online.
Benchmarks for success included positive media coverage, creating a community on social media of consumers that identified with the #RadicalEquality message, and sales of 15,000 chocolate bars. KPIs included reach through media coverage of 25 million, reach on social media of 50,000.
The social-first campaign needed to go further than sales of chocolate bars, although that was a key deliverable. It needed to demonstrate there was a real consumer desire for transparency and social good, so the key messages had to be clear, punchy and direct.
Communications had to:
- Develop and promote the purpose
- Grow the community
- Launch a new premium product into a competitive and price-sensitive environment
Proposition, purpose & messaging
Honey defined the project purpose, proposition, positioning, and message house that would inform audiences across all touchpoints.
Key messages
“Take a Bite out of Poverty” & “Pay Farmers a Living Wage”.
Using the #RadicalEquality Brand Book concise and compelling copy was written for the first consumer touchpoint, a pre-order registration website designed to secure sales, and build an email database for launch and future marketing.
The messaging then informed a script for the explainer and social videos.
Honey’s messaging then influenced and inspired the packaging and social channels.
Landing page and ecommerce
One week prior to launch the landing page became an ecommerce platform and continued to collect data.
FairChain commissioned a series of blog posts, which Honey wrote, which were adapted for email marketing and to assist website SEO.
Global social community
Honey created a Social Strategy Playbook that featured a social strategy, platform plan and set up Facebook and Instagram pages that were populated through a three month pre-launch, launch and post launch content plan.
Influencers
16 influencers were engaged, in return for free chocolate, with a reach of 546,000.
Content creation
We created content in the form of video, photography and stories to promote the #RadicalEquality campaign messages, video content and social posts, and a bank of social ads to target interested consumer groups.
We engaged with social good and food macro and micro influencers through outreach and product samples to reach a wider audience. In the absence of a budget for influencers, we created an influencer pack and reached out to dozens of influencers with a sample and tailored message.
PR
Honey created a digital press kit, story angles and secured, through media outreach, coverage and a series of interviews, about the campaign, its objectives and the product quality.
Honey sent out a series of press releases and media alerts to relevant trade and consumer media during the campaign period. Honey set up interviews for FairChain Foundation founder Guido van Staveren.
The releases:
United Nations launches chocolate bar to take a bite out of poverty
Eat chocolate, buy a tree, take a bite out of poverty
The Christmas Gift that keeps on giving
UN Goodwill Ambassadors
Honey created an Ambassador pack, including an explainer video and sample social posts. Despite UNDP offers of a UN Goodwill Ambassador to support the campaign, none came forward during the campaign period.
Additional consultancy
Throughout the campaign Honey supported the UNDP and Fairchain Foundation partnership with additional consultancy across a number of areas including photography, packaging, distribution, partnerships and ambassador endorsement.
- positive Tier 1, trade and B-Corp media coverage
- influencer support
- community growth
- positive social posts & shares #RadicalEquality
- pre-orders & surpassed sales KPI
The initial product run of 15,000 bars sold out so was increased to 26,000. Total campaign sales: 17,385.
Farmers received 4,346 new trees to provide future income. Each tree produces cocoa worth £19 to the farmer; £82,574. Each tree will absorb and store carbon dioxide to help combat climate change.
All farmers were paid a higher than market price for the cocoa used to produce The Other Bar; an extra £1.1 per kg above the $4.2 per kg living wage requested by the farmers association.
PR reach: 158 million, including:
Fast Company
The Sunday Times
BBC
The Next Web
Sustainable Brands
Euro News
Trendhunter
New York Times
Social content added 200 organic followers in seven days.
In less than four weeks we secured 16 influencer collaborations with a reach of 546,000, which gained 685 new followers.
Social ads reached 47,500 people and generated 991 link clicks and 9,560 page engagements for a €335 spend and CPC at €0.86. An awareness campaign (one week) reached 40,000 people, with 1,700 page engagements at minimal cost of €59.
A giveaway reached 14,700 people on social channels, generated more than 4,000 post engagements and prompted multiple sales.
The landing page recorded 500 registrations in one week before it converted to the e-commerce site.
