To celebrate its 80th birthday Kit Kat gave consumers the chance to design their own Kit Kat in the Kit Kat Studio, with Nestle’s head of marketing Chris O’Donnell, saying it exceeded expectations.
The experiential event may be a one-off for the brand, but six days in O’Donnell said the team has sold more than 2000 personalised Kit Kats. The expectation for the first week had been between 1000-1500.
“We’ve been out now for a week and the response has been exceptional,” he told B&T. “In terms of what we wanted to do to mark the occasion was first and foremost something really special for our consumers with a world-first.
“It’s really about giving the opportunity for consumers to really engage with the brand and do something that is truly unique and personalised to them.
“The lines of people to create their own Kit Kat, even before the shop has opened, there’s a line 10-15 deep.
The Kit Kat Studio – a pop-up store in Sydney’s Westfield – officially launched last Tuesday, with celebrity chef Anna Polyviou. It’s open for four weeks.
There are no current plans in place to roll out the Kit Kat Studio to other markets or around the country, so perhaps it’s time to take a weekend trip to Sydney…
It’s the first experiential type event the confectionary brand has gone for, solidifying its position as the chocolate people eat when they’re on a break.
Have a break, have a Kit Kat is arguably one of the most recognised slogans from a brand, and O’Donnell said there are no plans to move away from this the ‘break’ positioning.
“What we’re looking to do is to make sure we can continue to reinforce that and look for ways to continue to make consumers’ breaks more special,” he said.
This includes a recently launched initiative in partnership with YouTube, where consumers are served trending and poplar content during their breaks, as well as content relevant to Kit Kat. The relationship with Google over the years has also included an Android update called Kit Kat, which has recently been succeeded by update Lollipop, as well as a name change on the packet to YouTube to sell more chocolate wafer snacks.
However, the brand does want to increases its personalisation factor, as one of the biggest lessons Kit Kat has learnt over its 80 years is that every customer is different.
“In terms of what the future looks like for the next five years, we’ll really look at how we can continue to drive a greater level of personalisation and customisation, giving more opportunity for consumers to be involved in helping shape the brand,” said O’Donnell.
It’s the hope the Kit Kat Studio will drive more personalisation and engagement with the brand.
“We’re certainly going to learn a lot over the next four weeks,” said O’Donnell, “and we’ll look to do more experimentation, more customisation and personalisation, giving those consumers the opportunity to get actively involved.”
Practicing what he preaches, O’Donnell has already made multiple personalised Kit Kats, with Murray River salt being one that really tickles his tastebuds.
