BBR Saatchi & Saatchi and Elite Chocolate Present "Embracing The Haters"

Mar. 15, 2020

‘Torteet’, ‘Teami’, ‘Egozi’ and ‘Twist’ are chocolate bars from a different era. Had you come to Israel in the 1970's you’d have found only one chocolate brand on supermarket shelves: Elite’s bars. They were the brand everyone grew up on and loved.

But with the years, the Israeli market opened up and international brands made their way into the country and its supermarkets. Israelis, many of whom had never been abroad, were enchanted by the opportunity to get a taste of being abroad even if it was only by intermediary of a chocolate bar made overseas. So they slowly began ditching Elite’s chocolate bars in favor of the international power brands – a gradual but ultimately mass exodus which ended with the shaming today of the few consumers who remained faithful to Elite bars. Consumers the public has branded as ‘weirdos’ and ‘misfits’.

But Elite refused to surrender to the haters. Instead, they decided to take a drastic step and restore its faithful consumers’ pride in eating the bars. How?

By redesigning the bars’ packaging and changing the bars’ names to what Israeli consumers reproach them most:

• Twist became - “It’s dry!”
• Torteet - “Who (the hell) eats it?”
• Teami - “What (the #$@!) is in it?
• Egozi - “But why (would you eat it)?”

The bars and their redesigned packaging, were relaunched under the tagline “You can’t explain love” and distributed all over the country with our ad busting billboards in tow just to nail and spread the message (we off course also used social media and influencers to help spread the message – but we will not go into that now).

Suffice to say that the Israeli internet and our faithful consumers loved it:

It was a ‘f**k you’ to haters - who loved the humor and appreciated the honesty -
and a ‘thumbs up’ to our brand lovers who could now hold their heads up high, their dignity reclaimed.

Proof in point, our bar sales rose by 25% (a record high in 7 years), brand love rose 49% and brand relevance jumped to a 76% all time high! Proving that when you’re faithful to yourself and to your consumers it pays off. BIG TIME!