Although the last TV campaign worked well for chocolate brand Schogetten it was losing out to competition. Thus, our aim was making people more sympathetic towards the brand and increasing purchase intent.

Analyzing our target audience we discovered

1) Women love chocolate above average but feel guilty the moment they eat it

2) Women love soap operas and adore their stars.

Our idea: Using Germany’s best-loved soap star for a never seen before ad special on German television – jumping from the soap opera into our existing advert because he just can’t wait to get his hands on the chocolate.

It may sound simple, but it was a huge development in the German TV market, bridging the gap between commercial and non-commercial. More importantly, it put Schogetten chocolate at the heart of the nation’s favorite show, and straight away earned a place in their fans hearts:

Our campaign scored +22% ad likeability measured between viewers of the soap and non-viewers.

Unaided brand awareness increased by 29% and unaided ad recall by 75%.

Most importantly, our strategy and creation had a direct effect on purchase intention (+19%) and brand sympathy (+11%)

If we could stretch boundaries between program and advert, that the two became one, we knew we’d be on to a winner. So that’s exactly what we did – and it was the first time it had ever been attempted nationally: We placed the ad right after the last scenes of Germany’s most successful soap opera, before the station’s commercial bumper, and surrounded by a frame which usually includes station content. The moment the Schogetten bar is visible in the TVC, actor Jascha Rust appears, reaches out of the frame into the existing spot, and snitches a piece of Schogetten.

The existing TVC already put Schogetten’s USP (single pieces perfect for sharing) center stage. The humorous execution showed people snitching pieces of chocolate from others when they weren’t looking – showing off how desirable the chocolate bars are. With respect to our target audience insights this meant: utilize one of their favorite stars and focus on ad breaks of well-loved soap operas. This was the ideal strategy to reach our chocolate lovers and to show them that even their adored soap opera stars snitch a piece of chocolate once in a while.