Outside the Chocolate Box

Looking to hype a client's new product in a fresh, attention-grabbing way? Have a bunch of holiday promotions coming up and are a little stuck on ideas? What about an incentive program that needs just the right twist to make it stick? If you're looking for answers to any of these questions, you might want to consider working with chocolate.

Versatile, fun and indulgent, done right chocolate can solve a number of marketing problems like little else in the industry. As with any other item, there are infinite ways to be creative with it, but if you're looking for a head start, here are six distinctive ways to make the most of chocolate promotions.

1. Use a Size Gimmick
Watch network news for a weekend or two, and you'll notice that Americans (or perhaps just TV news producers) have an odd fixation with oversized food. Every once and a while you'll see a story about a Volvo-sized hamburger or a sub sandwich as long as a football field met with wide-eyed field reporters and a crowd full of slack-mouthed, hushed onlookers. And while you may not have the budget for a boulder-sized truffle or to-scale chocolate T-rex, there's nothing wrong with providing a big hunk of the sweet stuff to get a little attention.

Rhonda Delaney, sales and marketing manager for Chocolate Chocolate, Blaine, Wash., gave one example of putting size to work, a promotion that used a large bar in a contest to generate end-user hype. "We have one customer that annually holds a contest with their customers to produce a video showing how they broke apart the 2 lb. bar," she said. "We have seen some really entertaining and creative ways to accomplish this." Contest or no, going big may be a great way to get some attention.