Case Study: How HERSHEY'S challenged the traditional association of Valentine’s Day with integrated marketing, garnering 10 Mn+ reach

This case study explores different emotions during Valentine's day. Conceptualized by Interactive Avenues (the digital arm of IPG Mediabrands India) and Mediabrands Content Studio, India, the multi-media campaign celebrated love in all its forms.

Category Introduction

The chocolate category in India stands at INR 19,000 Cr and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 8.8 from 2023 onwards. Within this, premium chocolates account for 30% of the overall market share. With disposable income and health awareness increasing across age groups, many consumers are switching to more expensive, premium chocolates. Approximately 39% of Indian consumers consider chocolates ideal for gifting – whether it is birthdays, festivals, weddings or anniversaries. In India Valentine’s Day has grown as one of the biggest micro-occasions for the chocolate category, where consumers often choose premium gift offerings and prefer brands with distinct attributes. This gives brands an opportunity to increase mindshare amongst consumers and build long-term loyalty.

Brand Introduction

Hershey’s Chocolates is an internationally loved chocolate brand with a rich legacy and presence across 70+ countries. Hershey’s India launched their unique portfolio of premium chocolates pan-India in January 2020. This included 3 core brands – Hershey’s Kisses, Hershey’s Bars, and Hershey’s Exotic Dark. Made of delicious milk chocolate, Hershey’s Kisses is known for its unique shape and delicate wrapping. Globally, it is used as an expression of affection by consumers for their loved ones, with the powerful tagline “Say it with a Kiss”! Hershey’s Bar is a 125-year-old premium brand worldwide, available in 4 distinct flavors – Dark, Creamy Milk, Whole Almonds, and Cookies ‘N Creme. Hershey’s Exotic Dark offers a unique, exotic fruit-flavored/nut center coated with rich dark chocolate on the outside. It aims to elevate consumer’s key moments with delightful, indulgent, and exotic experiences. On social media, the brand aims to drive engagement and create buzz among the target audience, especially around relevant topical occasions.

Summary

Valentine’s Day was traditionally for young couples in love. Today, the occasion has taken on different forms. Young urban Indian consumers, including well-informed millennials and Gen Z celebrate this occasion with their Galantines, their best friends, and families. Hershey’s India made Valentine’s Day the biggest celebration of love in all its forms with a multi-touchpoint campaign that spanned across offline (physical gift packs, OOH hoardings, in-stores) to online (web series associations, audio platform integrations, influencer amplification, instant commerce integration, and social engagement. The campaign created massive impact, with a major uptake in sales and brand metrics.

Objective

Today, consumers prefer authentic brands that they can relate to. What’s more, Valentine’s Day is no longer confined to romantic relationships. It is slowly moving away from roses and teddies to become an event focused on bonding with loved ones. Against this backdrop, Hershey’s aimed at creating an inclusive space for celebrating love in all its forms and sparking conversations that would build brand consideration in the long run.

Brief

Hershey’s wanted to sustain and strengthen their #YourForevers messaging which was introduced in 2022, as this had resonated well with audiences. At the same time, they wanted to celebrate romantic relationships through their newly launched product (Kisses with Hazelnut ‘N Cookies) and #NuttyForYou messaging. They were looking to create an inclusive space for expressing love in all forms – between parents and children, best friends, neighbors, siblings, and of course romantic relations. The idea was to create powerful conversations around #YourForevers and #NuttyForYou which could be strengthened year on year. This in turn would help the brand create a distinct position for themselves during the topical occasion of Valentine’s Day.

Creative Idea

To celebrate all forms of love on an epic scale, Interactive Avenues, in collaboration with Mediabrands Content Studio, launched a one-of-a-kind multi-media campaign for Hershey’s, powered by digital innovation, impactful on-ground initiatives, and integrated content associations. To amplify the core thought that love is no longer restricted to romance, the brand leveraged its rich portfolio of products to reach diverse audiences with a high inclination towards premium chocolates.

Challenges

The campaign set out to challenge the traditional, deeply entrenched association of Valentine’s Day with romance. This required highly nuanced, digital-first messaging and content based on emotional and heartwarming stories that represent modern India’s relationship ethos appropriately. The campaign also required an innovative integrated action plan – right from gathering audience insights to planning communications and crafting creative assets for multi-media touchpoints at scale. Additionally, there was a need to ensure a high degree of differentiation for Hershey’s unique portfolio of chocolates, and bring all its different shapes, forms, and flavours alive in an exciting way.

Execution

Collaboration with Terribly Tiny Tales As part of the pre-campaign buzz, the brand announced its partnership with Terribly Tiny Tales (TTT) for its flagship content series “Butterflies’ (Season 4), with each of the 5 episodes presenting a different facet of relationships and highlighting special bonding moments built around each variant of Hershey’s chocolate portfolio.

Dedicated #NuttyForYou website:

To celebrate all forms of #YourForevers, an exclusive, dedicated website was developed, featuring one of India’s biggest digital billboards. People could dedicate their #NuttyForYou stories to their loved ones and share these with the world in an expanding online gallery which showcased all the thousands of entries received. The website also integrated a fun mini game, which offered winners a chance to get their next date sponsored by the brand!

Partnership with popular audio streaming platforms:

Inspired by the deep, age-old connect between music and love, Hershey’s partnered with India’s leading audio platforms – Spotify and JioSaavn. With Spotify, an exciting quiz was co-created which gave users their “Nuttiness Score” and recommended a personalized, unique playlist for their relationship. In partnership with Jio Saavn, a series of custom playlists was created to cherish and celebrate different relationships – ‘Bindass BFFs’, ‘Filmy Family’, ‘Our Special Moments’ etc. These were further amplified through unskippable audio, video, and impactful display inventories, which reached the target audience at high frequencies.

Custom AI lens on Snapchat:

A fun custom AI lens was co-created on Snapchat wherein users could use an array of expressions (smile, laugh, blush etc.) to illustrate what drives them completely ‘#NuttyForYou’.

Exciting on-ground initiatives in Delhi and Mumbai:

Hershey’s India provided a unique space for people to dedicate a personal message to their special someone. These messages, along with the user’s live picture were then displayed on a massive outdoor digital billboard, and were also updated on the dedicated brand website in real-time. Kamiya Jani, a popular influencer from Curly Tales, covered this exciting event in Mumbai and dedicated a special message to her daughter.

Conversation-sparking content on social media:

On social media, the buzz was focused on strong “Relationship-Moment-Brand” connections that sparked conversations and encouraged people to strengthen bonds with their ‘constants’ – be it a best friend, sister, sibling, parent, partner, or anyone considered “Your Forever”.

Results

While most chocolate brands were wooing consumers with ‘mushy’ messaging, Hershey’s successfully broke the barriers of convention and helped people celebrate their loved ones regardless of age, gender, or relationship. This inclusive, relatable campaign curated unique experiences and leveraged the right platforms and partnerships to drive both online and offline Conversions. The campaign delivered exceptionally across all media and brand KPIs. The brand witnessed a 106% uptake in offline sales and a ~103% jump in e-commerce sales (compared to Nov. and Dec.). It reached 10 Mn+ consumers, delivered 3.9 Mn+ views, and garnered 36 Mn+ impressions. Moreover, the brand’s Share of Voice (SOV) increased to 57%, making it dominant in the premium chocolate category.

“Consumers are now looking beyond traditional gifts, when it comes to festive indulgences, and chocolates top their list. This trend has only accelerated over the last few years, led by heightened consumer enthusiasm and chocolate brands’ increased focus. We have adopted an integrated experiential approach to build preference for our unique and rich chocolate portfolio during Valentine’s Day. ‘YourForevers’ is built on the back of heavy on-air media support, supplemented with print media, activations, sampling and strong in-store presence, across channels.” - Ankit Desai, Marketing Director, Hershey India.