On February 10th 2010 a chocolate bar was launched to market. It has now become the fastest selling chocolate bar in New Zealand over night. It outsold Crunchie, it’s closest rival two to one. Shops sold out and bars traded on the Internet for up to NZ$87.

But we weren’t selling chocolate!

They say you can get any Job Done with Yellow. Last year Tracey built a restaurant in a tree. This year, average every-man Josh has took up the challenge.  Yellow’s mission was to create the world’s first yellow tasting chocolate bar and bring it to market in six months using companies sourced only from Yellow™, Books, Online, Mobile and Maps. A participation brand campaign produced by Colenso BBDO and AIM Proximity.

“It’s been an adventure,” Josh says. “Lots of ups and downs; but I got it to go into supermarkets.”

So what does yellow taste like?

When researching flavours for the Taste of Yellow Chocolate, Josh apparently drew inspiration from his travels around New Zealand, his favourite breakfast (French toast with maple syrup and banana) and his mum’s desserts. His flavour testing road trip around New Zealand showed him most people preferred flavours like pineapple, banana and maple syrup over things like lemon and honey.

The taste of Yellow is hard to put your finger on, but it has a mixture of familiar flavours that blend together to create something entirely unique. It’s fruity, zingy and sweet. When I tasted the Yellow Chocolate bar for the first time, I was actually stunned by how much it tastes like yellow.

A quick taste-test on the streets saw opinion divided – though not on quality, but on the exact flavour. Banana, mint, pineapple – a little bit of white chocolate one punter reckoned. “Wow, that’s interesting mate. Oh yeah, that’s good. Tastes yellow, tastes like pineapple lumps, yeah, quite pineappley – its quite nice mate,” said another. “It’s quite fragrant, it’s yummy, it kind of has that pineapple-banana tropical sunshine,” said another.

There were 73,000 bars sold in the first three days on sale at $1.99 each. In an exclusive distribution deal with Countdown, Woolworths and Foodtown only 102,000 limited edition bars were made. “The sales of Yellow chocolate far exceeded expectations. This is one of the fastest selling new chocolate bars Progressive has experienced in a decade,” says Eve Dhar, Progressive Enterprises Limited category manager.

One enthusiast has launched a Facebook page called ‘Make More Yellow Chocolate’ and has a following of 362 fans, demanding another run of the limited edition chocolate. Yellow™ Marketing Director, Kellie Nathan, says “We wanted to prove that just about any mission could be completed using Yellow – the book, online or mobile. And we’ve certainly done that!”

Josh says that Yellow Chocolate’s has been brought to market with sheer hard work and the help of many partners: "Without the help of Yellow and over 45 Yellow businesses that supported me on this mission, I would have never imagined such a great result. I’m proud of the outcome and stoked to have proven that you can get any job done with Yellow"

Says Yellow marketing director, Kellie Nathan: "Josh has developed a huge following of people eager to discover the taste of Yellow Chocolate, his supporters, and the Yellow Businesses who have been involved, to celebrate a job done. We wanted to prove that just about any mission could be completed using Yellow – the book, online or mobile. And I think we’ve done that!" says Kellie.

Credits

Colenso BBDO:
Executive Creative Director: Nick Worthington
Creative Director: Steve Cochran
Digital Creative Director: Aaron Turk
Producer: Paul Courtney
Planning Director: James Hurman
Group Account Director: Andrew Holt
Account Director: Rachel Turner
Account Manager: Katya Urlwin

AIM Proximity
Digital Account Director: Terri Williams

Porter Novelli PR:
Executive Director: Louise Wright
Senior Account Manager: Sarah Geel
Senior Account Executive: Anna McIntosh