TONY’S CHOCOLONELY’S BANGER OF AN ACTIVATION

We're big, big fans of this Tony's activation in 2021. They set up a billboard in a shopping centre that was stacked with free full-size chocolate bars. Naturally, people helped themselves. And as the bars disappeared, it revealed a message that said: "There's no such thing as free chocolate. Somebody always pays the price." They got their product into people's hands and drove home their key message about exploitation in the industry and got a load of free press. Properly clever stuff. No notes.

While there's a lot we could say about what made this a great activation, there's actually something more universal that's going on beneath the surface: using copy to change the way customers think about a category.

Most challenger brands face the same fundamental problem: your customer already has a mental model of your category. And that mental model means that they're buying your competitor's stuff.

Bold Bean Co had to convince people beans could be gourmet. RockFace have to convince people that deodorant can be more like a high-end fragrance. Tony's have to convince people that cruelty-free chocolate is a better choice. And while a big, bold activation like Tony's is one way to do it. You can do the same thing with your copy, too. In the 1950s, Leon Festinger wrote about cognitive dissonance theory and found that people don't update beliefs or change their behaviour by reading claims. We change our minds when we experience or encounter contradictions we can't ignore. That brain itch of "oh no, something I believe isn't quite right here" causes us to actively rewrite our beliefs. It's why getting free chocolate and then seeing "there's no such thing as free chocolate" was so impactful. Which is the big opportunity for you and your copy. How can you show customers the things that are going to change their mind? Not tell them "our product is better" but show them something that reframes how they think about your product or how they think about your category? Can you talk about the trade offs and shortcuts the industry takes that you won't settle for? Can you explain why you use a certain ingredient over an ingredient everyone else uses? TLDR: don't write copy that tells them you're a better choice. Find a way to write copy that makes their current choice feel like a compromise.