NEW YORK—After the year we just survived, don’t we all deserve a bit of chocolate? Godiva thinks so. To celebrate its 95th anniversary earlier this month, the chocolate brand took to the streets in an eye-catching, retro pink truck, doling out sweet samples to New Yorkers who passed by.
The goal was to both honor Godiva's history and raise awareness of the brand’s national availability in food, drug, grocery and mass retailers. In a fun touch, the activation recalled a post World War II stunt, when Godiva founder Pierre Draps aimed to uplift the spirits of Brussels residents by painting the delivery trucks pink. After a similarly challenging period in New York, the brand decided to recreate the idea on the city's streets.
“2020 was a difficult year for people everywhere—especially in New York City,” explained John Galloway, Godiva's chief marketing and innovation offer. “In planning for our 95th-anniversary celebration, it was very important that we honored our rich history and we reflected on the happiness and joy that Godiva brought to the people of Belgium post-WWII. … We felt that this same sentiment could be used amid the pandemic.”
To further evoke the post-war stunt, the brand sourced a vintage Citron truck from 1948.Photo: Courtesy of Godiva
The brand teamed up with PR agency Lippe Taylor and production company Department of Wonder to design the trucks, hire brand ambassadors and ensure all the proper permits. “We wanted the pink truck to feel nostalgic and true to what the original pink looked like back in the 1940s,” Galloway said, noting that the team sourced a vintage Citroen truck to further evoke the old stunt. “The artwork shown on the truck was important too, and we elevated the pink by adding visuals of the chocolate we were sampling to get consumers excited about the treats.”
Ultimately, the truck distributed 5,000 chocolate products on June 9 in Herald Square and Columbus Circle, and an additional 10,000 from June 12-13 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and in the SoHo neighborhood. “We’re thrilled that we could surprise and delight so many people over the course of three days,” he said.
Galloway believes that consumers are looking for these types of feel-good activations from brands right now. “As life slowly starts to get back to some semblance of normal, people are yearning for anything that brings them back to happier times and anything that brightens their day,” he noted. “As GODIVA prioritizes our [consumer packaged goods] strategy to make our products more accessible and to reach consumers where they are, it became evident that in-person activations and guerilla-style marketing was another way for us to connect with consumers in a meaningful way.”
Ultimately, the truck distributed 15,000 chocolate products over three days.Photo: Courtesy of Godiva
