Watch above or read below.

Matthew Burns:
Steve, you’ve got a two-parter here we’re going to do in one video, and it’s because you like something and they pissed you off.

Stephen Semple:
It was so close.

Matthew Burns:
Exactly. So we’re going to talk about Kit Kat’s new little breaks campaign. So tell me, what do you like, because I really like it too, actually. I thought it was pretty brilliant, and then we’ll pivot at some point when you go off.

Stephen Semple:
Well, so they did a bit of a logo redesign, updating it and whatnot. That’s fine. But the thing I really like is that Kit Kat has spent decades going about Kit Kat being a break, and it was the double things. You break a piece off and take a break; you deserve a break. There was all this stuff around-

Matthew Burns:
Give me a break. Give me a break. Break me off a piece of that Kit Kat bar.

Stephen Semple:
Right. Yeah. Look, it’s a verb. It’s an action. It’s one of the few bars you can do that with. It was all great stuff. And look, it worked for years and years and years and years and years. They got away from it a little bit, and now they’re coming back to this whole thing of a little break. And it’s now a little break, that’s fine. It’s an extra word. Does it have a better meaning? I don’t know, but not a hill I would die on. If we knew the full strategy behind it, there might be a very good reason for making it a little break. I like what they did, and I even think the refreshed logo is good. I think they did a really nice job on that.

Matthew Burns:
I like it. Yeah, I agree.

Stephen Semple:
It’s very clean. It’s a little bit more modernized, a little bit of a refresh. Look, it might stand out a little bit more on the shelves because it’s a little bit different. Now we’re taking a little break. I think all the really good stuff is for reviving a brand. And there was one thing that was really great that could have happened, and they blew it.

Matthew Burns:
Well, I think, okay, hang on. To be fair, they started it correctly because they ran the billboards and the bus shelters. Oh yes. They ran it first, and they did beautiful frameline magnetism.

Stephen Semple:
Oh yeah.

Matthew Burns:
They didn’t show the whole logo. They had that little person taking their breaks somewhere on the logo, which was brilliant to let people discover it on their own.

Stephen Semple:
Yes.

Matthew Burns:
But then, Steve?

Stephen Semple:
Then they ran this video.

 

[Somber music] For decades, KitKat has said one thing. Have a break. But in our non-stop world, it’s the right time for a gentle reminder of just how good a little break can feel.

[Showing tiny hidden characters] Some stayed still. Some came alive. All hand-drawn. All designed to make you slow down. All over the UK. Bringing the brand and the break closer than ever.

Matthew Burns:
Oh, man.

Stephen Semple:
Well, and I can picture this. Oh my God, I was talking to my friend next door, and he didn’t see it. Well, people aren’t seeing it. We got to point it out to them. Yeah, not everybody’s going to see it, but you know what? Seeing it, discovering it, leads to social media. Seeing it and discovering it, like once you see it, you can’t unsee it.

Matthew Burns: Correct.

Stephen Semple: And look, if somebody doesn’t discover it, fine. But you’ve now completely destroyed the magic and think about emotionally how you feel in the moment when you make that little discovery, and all of a sudden you see the little person taking a little break, and your brain automatically goes, “Oh, I get it now. It’s a little break. Oh my God.” And the positive feelings that you feel in that moment.

Matthew Burns:
Oh, yeah.

Stephen Semple:
Associated 100% with the brand.

Matthew Burns:
Correct.

Stephen Semple:
Now, what you do is you eliminate all of that.

Matthew Burns:
We would tell our clients, we want to make them feel something about your brand, not tell them something about your brand. And unfortunately, what happened in that video was that they gave away all the secret sauce and told everything about it. And right away, unfortunately, if it was like three years later, when they were doing the behind-the-scenes, and this is what we did to come up with the song- Totally different. Completely different. That’s not what they did here.

They were like, “Hey, here’s this campaign. We’ve got it up and running, and this is why we did it, because we believe in telling people about taking a break.” And so what we did is we put a little break, and then they zoom in, and they show you a big version of the little guys. If you’ve noticed the pictures, we’re showing you the bus shelter.

We’re showing you the billboard. We’re showing it to you in full glory because that was brilliant when you get closer to it on your own, and you go, “Wait a second. There’s a little dude there. Oh, he’s reading a book. Okay. Oh, they’re having a nap. Oh, they’re reading.” You know what I mean? I now get to share that with somebody. I feel like I’m an inside member of the team. I get this insider knowledge. Even if they were to go out, have people on social media where they were asking, “Hey, Kit Kat, what’s with the little guy on the thing?” You can answer it there. They’ve done the homework. You’ve made them engage you.

Stephen Semple:
Curiosity, mystery, intrigue, all unbelievably powerful emotions, probably the most powerful emotions out there. And what we know, selling’s an emotional game. Businesses cannot do it because they can’t get out of their own goddamn way, because there may be one person who didn’t figure it out, because there’s this one person who didn’t figure it out. We have to tell everyone. I get it sitting in a boardroom, and the president didn’t see it. We did a focus group interview, and not everybody saw it.

Matthew Burns:
They did a focus group. Oh my God.

Stephen Semple:
Because they think their customers are idgets who will never figure it out.

Matthew Burns:
Well, here’s the thing, and I’m going to defend marketers a little bit. So the marketing company came up with a fantastic idea.

Stephen Semple:
Yes, they did.

Matthew Burns:
Okay. Now, I don’t know who originally came up with the idea. I don’t know if it was somebody at Kit Kat who was like, “Hey, we should have little breaks somewhere.” Whatever.

Stephen Semple:
It was a great idea.

Matthew Burns:
The implementation of it was fantastic. What I want to know is, Stephen, if somebody within one of our clients’ organizations said, “Hey, listen, it doesn’t seem like it’s really hitting the mark. What we need to do is tell everybody about it. What would you say?”

Stephen Semple:
Yeah, I’d sit the hell down, shut up, you’re not doing it. That’s stupid. The compromise I would make is to wait two years.

Matthew Burns:
Give it enough time to be discovered.

Stephen Semple:
Give it enough time to be discovered. Because here’s the other thing, especially in the world today, social media, if you let people discover it, people will post it on social media, and eventually everyone will figure it out. Call it 18 months down the road, run your stupid little video at that point where you’re explaining the whole thing, and the two people who didn’t get it now get it.

Matthew Burns:
Run your stupid little bit. Go ahead. Run your stupid little video. Listen, we don’t have to talk about how awesome the brand is. We don’t have to tell you how many chocolate bars they sell. Listen, it’s not a little brand, but as a marketing campaign, it could have been ridonkulous and this one was good for a little bit, and then they ruined it. That’s all it is. I mean, guys, we’re so close.

The mystery, letting people discover it on their own, using techniques like frameline magnetism, not showing the whole thing. Listen, everybody knows what the KitKat brand looks like for the most part. It’s not like it’s all that big of a secret, or it’s so complex that you can’t figure it out. There was so much there. Even if they wanted to, they could have put the name of the thing at the bottom of the billboard, just big enough that when you get close, you can figure it out.

If you really, really wanted to, they could have left it the way it was. It was beautifully done. Beautifully done. I’m so sorry, guys.

Stephen Semple:
And I like the whole little break. It was cute.

Matthew Burns:
I just don’t think it’s shareable now. As soon as you let everybody in, it’s not shareable now. So now you’re not growing the engagement naturally.

Stephen Semple:
Correct.

Matthew Burns:
Yeah. So guys, listen, so if you’re doing some marketing, if you’re a marketer or you’re a small business, small business owners, listen up. Listen, you’re allowed to be a little bit mysterious in your marketing. You’re allowed to hold on to the reveal for a little bit longer. Just be super interesting at the beginning, and you want an ad agency that’s going to not just say yes to everything you do or everything you want. Really, you want an agency that can tell you exactly how that’s going to run, why it’s going to run that way, because they’ve been doing it long enough to know. And please, please question everything. Steve, are there any last thoughts on this one?

Stephen Semple:
Yeah. If anybody’s going to reach out to us, you’re nicer, so they should reach out to you.

Matthew Burns:
Reach out to me. Guys, we’ll be back next week on Sticky Sales Stories.

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