Where Kit Kat has landed
As cinema spots in France
Client: Nestlé Canada
Bob Leonidas, president
Ken Shaver, VP marketing, confectionery
Elizabeth Frank, director of marketing
Hira Verma, brand manager
Agency: JWT, Toronto
Martin Shewchuk, EVP/ECD
Martin Shewchuk/Paul Wales, copywriters/
art directors
Where Aero has landed
The U.K. and the Ukraine
Client: Nestlé Canada
Bob Leonidas, president
Ken Shaver, VP marketing, confectionery
Elizabeth Frank, director of marketing
Anna Shaw, brand manager
Agency: JWT, Toronto
Martin Shewchuk, EVP/ECD
Don Saynor, copywriter
Malcolm Roberts, art director
Their story
Big numbers and a showing at a Nestlé global conference led Canadian Aero and Kit Kat creative to go international (well, the latter also won a Silver Lion at Cannes last year.) The Kit Kat TV spot eventually wound up in cinemas in France, and Aero on TV in the U.K. and the Ukraine. But the real source of pride is that it’s the first time Canadian Nestlé spots in this category have been picked up outside of the country, says Ken Shaver, VP marketing at Nestlé.
While humour was key, Shaver admits the numbers stole the show with Nestlé internationally. Once the ad launched in 2004, Kit Kat went from number two to the number-one-selling chocolate bar in Canada; and Aero, with creative launched in 2003, jumped from number seven to number two, says Shaver. Martin Shewchuk, EVP/ECD at JWT says the Kit Kat work, about a model who finds his job de trop, helped enliven a campaign and tag that hadn’t changed much in 40 years.
And Shewchuk says these types of funny ads (the Aero spot features two women mumbling with pieces of the bar melting in their mouths), reflect the chances Canadian marketers are increasingly taking. ‘[There’s] more willingness to use humour that pushes the envelope a bit,’ he says, adding this is especially true in the straight-laced packaged good categories. But while it’s exciting when Canadian work gets picked up internationally, Shewchuk warns that that end should never be the driving force: ‘It leads to [unfocused] executions. The kiss of death is to make it seem international.’
