SWITZERLAND. Ritter Sport has collaborated with Dufry at Zürich Airport in a Colourful World of Chocolate activation, starring its popular sloth mascot Don Choco.
Using touchless educational and entertaining elements, the #DiscoverRitterSport promotion runs through June and builds awareness of Ritter Sport’s more than 30-year sustainability ethos while highlighting its travel retail-exclusive range.
The colourful promotion area is divided into two key parts: sustainability and taste.
Don Choco’s home, the cocoa tree, is the centrepiece of the promotion area and symbolises sustainability. The infotainment content promotes the brand’s recent carbon-neutral certification, which was awarded in 2020. The integrated digital screens also feature the ‘incredible journey of Don Choco’ with QR codes and links to further online information.
Ritter Sport maintains sustainability through its Nicaraguan cocoa farm, El Cacao, which the company has owned since 2012. Ritter Sport claims to be the first major chocolate manufacturer to produce exclusively certified and sustainable cocoa for its entire range.
Ritter Sport’s mascot Don Choco is an integral part of the activation. His presence highlights how El Cacao’s biodiversity provides a home for sloths and many other animals.
Ritter Sport Marketing Manager Travel Retail Kerstin Krüger said: “At Ritter Sport we have a lot to say about our colourful, tasty chocolate and sustainability efforts for over 30 years, so an airport promotion was the logical addition to bring the brand’s purpose to life at retail POS. Using our cute sloth mascot and brand ambassador Don Choco as the central character for the promotion enables us to draw attention to the story behind our cocoa farm at El Cacao in Nicaragua.”
The promotion also enhances the ‘Taste colourful Ritter Sport chocolate’ campaign messaging, following the design and packaging relaunch of its travel retail-exclusives range in 2021, with a more colourful and sustainable appearance.
The company’s chocolate machine attracts consumers with the slogan ‘What’s Your Flavour?’ and offers travellers the opportunity to taste Ritter’s chocolate using a touchless mechanic. By answering a few onscreen questions from Don Choco via their mobile device, the traveller receives their preferred chocolate from the touchless vending mechanic.
Dufry Global Category Head of Confectionery Philippe Moryl added: “We are thrilled to bring such a fun and informative shopping experience to our customers at Zurich Airport. This promotional activity perfectly reflects our own ambitions and the standards we want to set with regard to customer engagement.
“We encourage our brand partners to develop creative ways such as this to help promote their brands and products and to also accompany our customers along their journey, using the different digital touchpoints we have both on and off site.
“Based on initial customer feedback we are looking forward to continuing to develop comprehensive campaigns such as these with our local and global brand partners. I would like to sincerely thank both the Ritter Sport and the Zürich Airport teams for their support and commitment to help make this creative promotion happen.”
The ‘#DiscoverRitterSport meet Don Choco and taste our chocolate in full colour’ promotion has been designed with Bluedog Promotions. Following the four-week promotion in Zürich Airport it will move to Frankfurt Airport’s non-Schengen zone in partnership with Frankfurt Media/ FFM Airport in August.
Ritter Sport Managing Director Travel Retail Jan Pasold concluded: “This is a significant investment for Ritter Sport and we have worked very hard to bring together the key elements that the company stands for, notably the 30 years of sustainability that is embedded within the DNA of our brand and the quality of our chocolate, which uses only the very best ingredients.
“While we are rolling out the activation in two key airports during 2022, our plan is to have two to three other key locations for the concept in 2023, as we want to use this concept exclusively for the particular month in a specific location.”
