MAKING connections WITH GHIRARDELLI

COMMS PLANNING

The Challenge
Only available for 8 weeks per year, Ghirardelli Peppermint Bark Squares are a top premium holiday chocolate product. However, competitors have gained market share with new holiday chocolate offerings over the past few years, and only 6% of households purchased GPB last year. Previous advertising wasn’t breaking through the holiday clutter, and Ghirardelli needed a fully integrated strategy with the right comms touch points to maximize this short selling window and drive household penetration.

Strategic Spark
Prior Ghirardelli Peppermint Bark campaigns focused on single moments of indulgence, but in 2024, with a stressful election kicking off the holiday season, all research showed that Americans were craving community. For this campaign, we wanted to tap into the idea of shared indulgence by encouraging our audience to fully lean into the excess of the holiday season - more moments of togetherness, more moments of joy, more holiday spirit and more Peppermint Bark.

The Creative Idea
You can never have too much holiday spirit, so we celebrated the people that go all out during the holidays. From a big PR launch moment, to the debut of our new TVC, to influencer collaborations and social content, all creative work was designed to inspire our audience to maximize their joy and make this the most Peppermint Bark–filled season of all. This 360 comms plan, including a Day-in-the-Life consumer journey, was designed to maximize our visibility during this short window.

The Results
To kick off the campaign, strangers gathered in Times Square to sing “Deck the Halls” around a mystery box to raise a holiday spirit meter. The box opened to reveal 30,000+ squares of free Peppermint Bark. This activation generated millions of earned impressions and thousands of social engagements. This paired with targeted TVC, organic and paid digital/social, retail displays and influencer content got consumers talking and kept Ghirardelli Peppermint Bark top-of-mind, driving higher preference and sales.

PROTECTING OUR BEACHES WITH CORONA

Corporate Social Responsibility

The Challenge
Corona has had a long history of supporting different CSR causes and activations, but in 2020, the brand wanted to create a program that could be a long-term brand pillar and could engage their community.

Strategic Spark
Corona has long been synonymous with the beach because of what beaches represent, places to relax and refresh our perspectives, but pollution threatens our ability to enjoy these spaces. Corona’s resources and large community can make a meaningful impact on conservation efforts, helping to turn the tide on plastic pollution and protect our beaches.

The Creative Idea
We found that people want to make an impact on environmental issues, but don’t always know where or how to get started. To spark direct action, Corona launched a partnership with Oceanic Global and committed to cleaning up 100 beaches and removing 1 million pounds of plastic from beaches, waterways and its business by 2025. In cities across the country, we created ocean cleanup events and launched targeted social content, encouraging local audiences to join us to clean up our beaches.

The Results
Since 2020, Corona has led more than 100 Protech Our Beaches cleanups across the country with the help of more than 3,500+ volunteers and an average of 27,000+ lbs of trash collected per cleanup. These events, in conjunction with other business shifts Corona has made using the guidance of Oceanic Global criteria, Corona has removed over 1.2 million lbs of plastic.