Apart from the on-going competitive business climate and the constant need to refresh the famous and long-running campaign ‘Have a break. Have a Kit Kat’, there was no formal brief from the client. UK Nestle wanted to go on a journey with us, similar to a social experiment. It made a refreshing change from their normal mass media agenda. We wanted to deliberately ‘narrow-cast’ to small consumer base and therefore there were no increased sales targets to hit, only a desire to delight and surprise a small group of enthusiasts who normally fly under the radar. The guiding principle for the entire activity was to respect the craft and dedication of the niche audience of model makers. We wanted Kit Kat to behave like a project partner and reward these tireless modelers with a break they would never forget and celebrate their geeky world.

Kit Kat is synonymous with breaks. To reinvent the ‘Have a Break’ message, we targeted the niche world of fanatical hobbyists – model makers. These enthusiasts patiently put together highly complicated models and we decided they were long-overdue for a break. So, to coincide with Airfix’s biggest release, the Supermarine Spitfire model, we added a sealed Kit Kat into the kits. An additional step was even inserted into the instruction booklet telling the hobbyists exactly when to enjoy their break. On the outside of the limited edition box, we also put a cryptic message ‘Now with added break’ which intrigued the on-line model builders. We created earned media by having these YouTubers unbox our product and discover the hidden break. In turn, we achieved a world-first for Nestle: incorporating their product into another brand’s product.

Model-makers are a niche bunch with a small audience on-line. But thousands of people engage in the hobby, with yearly sales of plastic models in the UK averaging £35 million. Modelers are very detail-focused and have a high tolerance for many complicated steps and hard, precision work. This sort of passion point has a unique, built-in need for a break. Kit Kat, like many confectionary products, must constantly re-invent itself to stay top of mind in a highly competitive category. To begin, we created an engaging OOH execution featuring hundreds of model parts with the line: Have a break. Have a Kit Kat. We decided to go a step further and create a real world version of this idea. We assumed if we positioned the brand correctly, modelers would share their Kit Kat experience and create rich content for us advocates without any financial encouragement.

To create an authentic modelling ‘kit’ experience, we worked closely with Airfix and enlisted the help of a model maker to help us construct a 3D-printed, eco-friendly plastic ‘sprue’ into which we clipped the Kit Kat product. This frame was designed to look exactly like the same parts scaffold normally found in Airfix kits. We also worked with the Airfix instruction team and created a set of illustrations that detailed how to break the Kit Kat product, which aped the model maker’s step by step design. The entire activation took approximately 8 months, from first contact with client, to the direct mail send out. To maximize the interest for the modelers, we timed the direct mail moment with the release of a limited edition Submarine Spitfire model. 25 ‘Kit Kat Kits’ were then created and sent out to on-line modelers with a personalized, accompanying letter from Kit Kat.

Our main goal was to surprise, inspire and delight this niche group of enthusiasts. And judging from some of their heart-felt reactions, both in the influencer videos and the comment pages on YouTube, we achieved just that. As this was an agency initiative without any formal brief from client, there were no increased sales expectations. The activation which had a modest budget of £6K, reached about 250 thousand model makers on line, or almost 95% of the community. We also had a lot of big press milestones, such as ‘ad of the week’ in The Drum, and ‘ad of the day’ in Campaign as well as being picked up and applauded in at least 10 advertising sites. The client was delighted by the response and touched by the reaction from the influencers who clearly appreciated Kit Kat giving them a well-deserved break from their own labor of love,