Ritter Sport has teamed up with Dufry and Zurich Airport (ZRH) to host the colourful ‘#DiscoverRitterSport meets Don Choco’ and ‘Taste Colourful Ritter Sport Chocolate’ promotions throughout June [scroll below for video].

Featuring Ritter Sport’s recognisable ‘Don Choco’ sloth mascot, the activation fosters awareness of the German family owned confectionery company’s sustainable brand principles while nodding to its travel exclusives range.

Following the four-week ZRH promotion, it will move to Frankfurt Airport’s non-Schengen zone in August where Ritter Sport will partner with Frankfurt Media/FFM.

SUSTAINABILITY & TASTE

The promotional area, designed in collaboration with Bluedog Productions, is split into two segments: sustainability and taste.

A cocoa tree centrepiece with fruit is designed to catch the eye of the traveller and underpins Ritter Sport’s sustainability credentials, with infotainment content aiming to tell the story of the brand’s carbon neutral accreditation.

This story is enhanced by integrated digital screens outlining the ‘incredible journey of Don Choco’ with QR codes and links to further online details.

Don Choco infuses educational and fun elements within the cocoa tree centrepiece, which details information on the Ritter Sport owned 2,500 hectare El Cacao cocoa farm in Nicaragua.

The cocoa farm includes more than 1,200 hectares of forest and wetland that provides a home for sloths and other animals.

The ‘Taste Colourful Ritter Sport Chocolate’ campaign messaging makes up the second element of the promotion.

This follows the successful design and packaging relaunch of Ritter Sport’s travel retail exclusives range in 2021, with a concentration on more colourful and sustainable packaging.

Ritter Sport’s sampling machine attracts consumers with the slogan ‘What’s Your Flavour?’ offering sampling opportunities.

By simply answering a few onscreen questions from Don Choco via a mobile device, the traveller receives their preferred chocolate from the touchless vending mechanic.

‘COMPREHENSIVE CAMPAIGNS’ PLANNED

Kerstin Krüger, Marketing Manager Travel Retail, Ritter Sport said: “At Ritter Sport we have a lot to say about our colourful, tasty chocolate and sustainability efforts for over 30 years, so an airport promotion was the logical addition to bring the brand’s purpose to life at retail POS.

“Using our cute sloth mascot and brand ambassador Don Choco as the central character for the promotion enables us to draw attention to the story behind our cocoa farm at El Cacao in Nicaragua.”

Philippe Moryl, Global Category Head of Confectionery for Dufry added: “We are thrilled to bring such a fun and informative shopping experience to our customers at Zurich Airport.

“This promotional activity perfectly reflects our own ambitions and the standards we want to set with regard to customer engagement. We encourage our brand partners to develop creative ways such as this to help promote their brands and products and to also accompany our customers along their journey, using the different digital touchpoints we have both on and off site.

“Based on initial customer feedback we are looking forward to continuing to develop comprehensive campaigns such as these with our local and global brand partners. I would like to sincerely thank both the Ritter Sport and the Zurich Airport teams for their support and commitment to help make this creative promotion happen.”

The promotion periods at the airports are supplemented by additional communication – coloramas, digital e-flight panels and price offers in different shops.

Ritter Sport Managing Director Travel Retail Jan Pasold concluded: “This is a significant investment for Ritter Sport and we have worked very hard to bring together the key elements that the company stands for, notably the 30 years of sustainability that is embedded within the DNA of our brand and the quality of our chocolate, which uses only the very best ingredients.

“While we are rolling out the activation in two key airports during 2022, our plan is to have two to three other key locations for the concept in 2023, as we want to use this concept exclusively for the particular month in a specific location.”

As reported, Ritter Sport staged a visually appealing two-month execution with Dufry at ZRA between November 2021 and January 2022.