Fazer Blue is the most loved chocolate brand in Finland with 94% brand awareness, but it needs to do a lot to stay relevant. Especially the original milk chocolate flavor needs constant reminding to be purchased.

The central question was: “How do you make the most loved chocolate the most talked chocolate?”.

Chocolate is a product of love and caring. Driven by Northern values and liberty, Fazer wanted its most precious chocolate brand to stand for these values. Fazer wanted to launch a special edition pack for the original milk chocolate saying “A little piece of Love” instead of the usual product name. The challenge was to make this message of love work harder for a real issue in Finland.

Introducing Blue Lovebot,

the world’s first chocolate

fighting hate speech with artificial intelligence.

According to UN, hate speech is a human rights issue in Finland. Radicalization of internet discussion had been rising for many years in Finland. 3 out of 4 young Finns have come by with online hate (Hate Communities study among 15-30 years old 2016).

So, if we think chocolate is a token of love, we should do something about with the existing hate. How could chocolate fight hate speech? Should a brand this loved do something so unorthodox? And maybe wake up back clash?

Fazer decided to be brave, stand for its values and use the biggest brand gun available – Fazer Blue.

According to European Commission against Racism and Intolerance: ”Hate speech, if left unaddressed can lead to acts of violence and conflict on a wider scale.”

Therefore, hate shouldn’t be answered by hate or silence.

Fazer wanted to give voice to them who were attacked by hate speech and intercept this hate with a more loving message. Our key message was that we need to rethink the way we speak online and remember to have a little piece of love in our communication.

Fazer Blue strives to be relevant for the younger urban audience while staying relevant for the big audience of Finns. We knew that the group of haters will react to our initiative and believed that it could help us activate the big majority of non-haters to support our cause.We taught artificial intelligence to identify potential hate speech online and intercepted hate with more loving approach.

First we taught artificial intelligence to identify potential hate speech and then tested it under radar. When the Blue Lovebot was working – identifying potential hate speech online and letting us to intercept it with more loving approach, we launched the idea with PR and a video on United Nations Day October, 24th 2018.

We used Fazer’s own channels to activate people to think love or hate. We invited social media influencers to support our cause. We made the initiative visible nationwide in TV and online. On the eve of Finland’s Independence Day, December 5th we summed up the hate-countering action with a simple message of love.

From hundreds of thousands of discussions, Blue Lovebot identified over 20 thousand potential hate speech and intercepted hate with a more loving approach.

The sales and market share of Fazer Blue exceeded all expectations, fortifying it as the most sold product in confectionary category in Finland.

From hundreds of thousands of discussions, Blue Lovebot identified over 20 thousand potential hate speech and intercepted hate with a more loving approach.

Blue Lovebot reached through earned media over 6,4 M people in Finland (population of Finland 5,5 M)

Fazer Blue got +40% bigger ad awareness compared to previous campaigns. 88% of all publicity was either positive or neutral.

Most importantly our action exposed the hate speech phenomenon for the Finnish public, raised the topic into discussions and started building resistance against it. One discussion at a time. Thanks to a chocolate, truly loved and supported by a nation.

Month after the launch, 3 Finnish ministries published a press release: ”A broad working group established to consider actions against hate speech and online bullying".