October 5 is Teacher’s Day in Russia. On that day teachers are inundated with gifts, most of them chocolates. In Russia, traditionally more than 68% people choose chocolate for a gift, especially as a thankful gesture to teachers. With 1,225,000 teachers in Russia, that equates to a mountain of chocolates.

Serviceplan Russia realised that this was a marketing opportunity for its client, smallgoods manufacturer, Cherkizovo. All it had to do was switch the traditional gift.

Serviceplan created a new product, Hamcolates, “chocolates with ham inside. And outside. And without chocolate.” Hamcolates were packaged like a box of chocolates and just before Teacher’s Day, Serviceplan Russia seeded videos on social media representing WhatsApp chats of parents and teachers, which sparked a discussion about the not-so-sweet chocolates and created a social media buzz which people started sharing instantly and an online store was opened where people could order Hamcolates.

Immediately after Teacher’s Day, Cherkizovo launched Candy Trade-in, which invited teachers to exchange unwanted chocolates for brand-new packs of Hamcolates in O’KEY supermarkets. 550 boxes of unwanted chocolates were exchanged for Hamcolates in 2 days.  After the launch, Hamcolates began another social media campaign that challenged giving sweet gifts on any occasion, suggesting meat gifts instead.

Evgenia Arakbina, executive creative director, Serviceplan Russia, commented, “Creativity has no limits. It was a fun and pleasure to create provocative product concept, to work on its pack design and then to use the power of situational marketing to launch it. This is an example of our Übercreativity approach. And it is just a beginning.”

Credits:

Agency: Serviceplan Russia
Worldwide Executive Creative Director, Serviceplan Group: Jason Romeyko 
Chief Executive Officer: Olga Starichenko 
Executive Creative Director: Evgenia Arabkina
Strategic Planning Director: Anastasia Boykova
Senior Account Manager: Sergey Martyshin
Senior Copywriter: Andrey Artyushin
Art Director: Ksenia Golovina
Junior Art Director: Anastasia Khizovets
Creative Designer: Alexander Pshikin 
Junior Designer: Sergey Sedunov
Senior Interactive Designer: Maxim Kazantsev 
Junior Interactive Designer: David Khandamov

International Communications Officer, Serviceplan Group: Lee Sharrock

Media Agency: Louder (part of Serviceplan Group
Head of Communications & Content: Anastasia Gritskova
Client Group Director: Veronika Zakharova
Media Manager: Zarina Molova 
Community Manager: Elena Koliubakina

Client: Cherkizovo
Marketing Director: Irina Kim
Brand Director: Nataliya Dementyeva
Senior Brand Managee: Antonina Vishnevskaia
Brand Manager: Shushanna Alanian
Marketing Communications Manager: Irina Kalinina