2022 Winners & Shortlists

Why is this work relevant for PR?

Why is Chocapologies relevant? Well, our brand, a small, albeit world-class chocolate shop/influencer chef, made the strategic decision not to take on his local competition but instead the entire dark side of the internet. So, no small challenge and a rather brave strategy (ballsy) thing to attempt. Plus, this campaign has a PR and earned strategy/approach at its heart. And with a modest budget, we achieved unprecedented reach, awareness, brand uplift, fame and love by hand-delivering, handcrafted chocolate-coated apologies to the victims of online abuse, #influencers who hand enough fans to take on the trolls.

Background

The internet. The cruelest playground in the world. Where trolls bully perfect strangers. And, the victims of their hate messaging and body shaming are left to suffer Low self-esteem, severe depression, eating disorders, lower academic scores, long-term psychological ailments, inflict self-harm or even take their own lives. Our brief was to come up with the creative (our own idea). And our client, Karim Bourgi, a Master Chocolatier and famous influencer Chef, is no stranger to trolls or reading their hateful, jealous comments/abuse. He asked us if we could make the internet a better, happier, kinder and well ‘sweeter’ place for him and, if possible, thousands of other victims. Plus equally, to help raise our client's social profile, reach and fame.

Describe the creative idea (20% of vote)

To sugarcoat means to glaze or coat chocolate with something sweet. But it’s also a typical phrase used to explain or say something in a manner that is easier to accept, understand or cope with. Our idea, put simply, is this - What if the Internet could be sugarcoated, or rather all the hateful comments that trolls write? @alltrolls, come on, at least #SugarcoatIt. We created Chocapologies using Crystal Clear Rigid PVC, and Food Grade specialized thermoform plastic moulds. The idea pushed the limits of food mould-making to a level of precision and detail that even the best food mould-makers in the world said wasn’t going to be possible. Thankfully though, it was, and our client, who’d asked us to make the Internet a better, well ‘sweeter’ place, finally got to have the last word with his trolls.

Describe the PR strategy (30% of vote)

We researched the problem extensively, which wasn’t hard, as there’s a world of data available. But there’s far fewer facts or even any good ideas on how to solve the issues trolls create. Our breakthrough moment? It was simply to flip our strategic, PR and earned approach entirely. So instead of trying to moderate those posting hate messaging, body shaming or cyberbullying, we decide to focus on making their victims feel better. Put simply; we thought maybe we could apologize on behalf of all the trolls? So we trolled the trolls by sending their victims a deliciously edible chocolate apology on their behalf. We created Chocapologies using Crystal Clear Rigid PVC, and Food Grade specialized thermoform plastic moulds, and we delivered to the victims of online abuse and used their large social followings to create mass awareness. Additional buzz came via radio, TV interviews, online news channels and outdoor.

Describe the PR execution (20% of vote)

We use social listening tools to find victims of trolls and online abuse (people with large followings such as celebrities, influencers and gamers) so that we could then leverage their sizable online/social followings to raise awareness of the problem and encourage people to #SugarcoatIt

List the results (30% of vote)

With a tiny budget we achieved unprecedented reach, awareness, brand uplift, fame and love. · Project cost: $7,623 · Earned media: $1.26M · Impressions: 261M · Global reach: 18 Countries · Press, radio, tv and online mentions +100 · Internet positivity, sentiment, love increased by + 0.072574321% · Karim Bourgi (our client) gained 126K new fans, and a few (13) new trolls in a month.