KitKat theft highlights enduring brand power over reactive, short-term marketing tactics and vanity metrics.
By Hubert Boulos
By now, anybody on the planet who can read and has access to a social media feed is fully aware that 12 tons of KitKat were stolen in Europe.
I won’t dwell on how other brands reacted to that press release, etc. I think it’s been well covered. This probably benefited KitKat way more than the brands jumping on the bandwagon, especially the clowns who have little or no awareness and think they’re being clever. I’ll give you the names in private if you want, including those originating from the region!
But I would rather like to give you my point of view on why that simple press release about the theft went viral. It is certainly not about PR being the new way of being effective. It is even less about the strength of social media. Actually, the world just rediscovered that KitKat is not a chocolate wafer. It is actually a brand. A concept that has been watered down significantly lately.
To understand it, you have to go back to textbook marketing: KitKat is one of the very few brands that ticks all the boxes of proper marketing and brand building: it has consistently and continuously leveraged the six fundamental pillars that distinguish an iconic brand from the rest.
- It is based on a mission: owning the break.
- It is irreplaceable: you cannot swap KitKat with another chocolate bar or wafer.
- Its quality is high and consistent: every generation alive knows exactly what to expect in terms of taste, appetite appeal, and sensory experience.
- It has fed the brand with innovations that are 100% consistent with the original product and brand.
- It has built an imagery that is instant in terms of association via its packaging, colors, and product features.
- It has established an emotional relationship with its global audience with creative ads around the same idea since 1953. Its first TV commercial was based on owning the break with the same tagline: Have a Break, Have a Kit Kat.
It sounds simple, but it is actually very difficult, and that is why a simple post about a theft went viral and got the whole world involved. It just proves something that most people have forgotten about: marketing is a real job, and brand building is something to be taken seriously.
Most other product thefts would have fallen under precision marketing at the local police station officer level, not KitKat! KitKat made it well beyond the local police station and the local newspaper’s crime section.
Today, too many stakeholders want to see instant results, just like all the brands that rebounded on KitKat’s post. At best, they will get vanity metrics (likes, impressions, etc) but probably zero sales, and zero brand-building awareness.
Most importantly, their posts can be generated with AI for a cost of zero. Everyone will go home happy, but nobody will be happier than KitKat, which generated millions worth of media and reinforced its global awareness for zero spend. That does not happen randomly; they have been working on it relentlessly with the same now-defunct agency (JWT) for almost a century.
That’s what it really takes. I wonder who is ready for such a discipline today. I’ll never forget a client who once called my agency asking if we did viral ads. Well, that same guy is probably calling agencies now and asking if they can do something like KitKat. My guess is that, unfortunately, he’s not alone in this world. My advice to these guys: spend your marketing budget on a lottery ticket, you will have a better ROI! Alternatively, give me a call, but please don’t mention viral!
(Hubert Boulos is the Founder and CEO of Das Kapital Advertising Agency)
