#chocolateheaven was not linked to a specific country or region (see country split of YouTube views: 24% US, 18% Germany, 17% France, 15% Switzerland, 15% UK). Still, local barriers had to be taken.

Lindt’s home turf Switzerland is not exactly raving for branded content. Most brands stay away from experiments as their business is running great across the world. Switzerland stands for quality, usually presented in a scripted, but artificial shot and digital is more of an extension to TV and print. Especially in social networks brands shy away from interaction and avoid the dialogue with fans and followers. Branded content seems very far away.

But Lindt is a pioneer: each market has a Facebook & Twitter account, with Instagram and Pinterest catching up. All accounts work independently with six-digit numbers of fans and followers.

A guiding light for chocolate lover engagement is in place. But no content is rolled out internationally and the “Lindt Chocolate World” only means sharing local activities.

What Lindt needed was a global content story that gets orchestrated in a way that it actually engages consumers – with global brand ambassador Roger Federer, who has 14m Facebook fans keen to see more of him.

So we had great content, but only a low budget. Therefore we orchestrated #chocolateheaven primarily through owned channels (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Lindt international) and selectively mixed in paid media to extend reach. The revealing story that started with a mysterious Skype call hooked fans from Roger and Lindsey. Formats like native ads or video seeding made sure, that no one was exposed to the story without wanting to see it. In short: we credibly exploited the fan base of three heterogeneous fan groups (Lindt, Roger and Lindsey) in a 100% pull strategy and generated a huge social impact.

With this campaign, Lindt has shown how to connect a brand in a credible, entertaining way while simultaneously utilizing the social impact of today’s athletes. Instead of focusing on a physical store, Lindt created content referring to a real-life event and engaged people by generating curiosity.

A deep dive into numbers:

• >72m impressions of skype-call in social media

• >134m impressions of challenge in social media

• PR coverage with >800 published articles, galleries…

• Yahoo, ESPN, WashingtonPost, DailyMail, HuffPo, FOX Sports, CBS, LeMatin,…

• Est. reach: 93m users

• 80.000 uniques on microsite

• >2m views on YouTube

• +442% fans of LindtChocolateWorld

By providing a qualitative analysis of what the videos did for the brand, we cleared all doubts

• +156% in Top of Mind Awareness (15% to 38%)

• +42% in Likeability (57% to 81%)

• +33% in purchase intention (54% to 72%)

• 23% will talk with friends about the video

• Recommendation rate: 52% to 77%