Taste of Victory: Online Outcry Revives a Chocolate Bar
(*Source: Newyorktimes *)
Eric Pfanner says :
LONDON, Aug. 26 — Two weeks ago, a Facebook member in Manchester, England, added her name to an online campaign to bring back a chocolate bar called Wispa, discontinued by its maker, Cadbury, four years ago.
“Ive just signed petition-my life not the same since its gone I really do thik about them all the time — bring them back pleasssssssseeeeeeeee,” she wrote.
Users of Facebook, the social networking service, make up for any shortcomings in spelling, grammar and punctuation with their sheer numbers. After nearly 14,000 people joined “bring back Wispa” groups on Facebook, the food conglomerate Cadbury Schweppes announced on Aug. 17 that it would reintroduce the candy bar in October.
Companies everywhere are monitoring blogs and other online discussions for feedback on their brands and providing them with information about coming products, as well as placing so-called viral advertisements on video-sharing sites. But the company insisted that the expressions of affection for Wispa on the Internet were genuine.
The campaign for Wispa, and the decision by Cadbury to revive it, shows what can happen when nostalgia about lost brands converges with user-generated content and social networking sites.
“This is the first time that the power of the Internet played such an intrinsic role in the return of a Cadbury brand,” the company said.
Cadbury said it had identified 93 user groups on Facebook calling for a return of Wispa. Fans posted video clips from 1980s advertisements for Wispa, featuring stars of British television shows like “Hi-de-Hi!” and “Yes Minister,” on YouTube, the video-sharing Web site.
Thousands of other consumers joined online petitions. One of these, on a Web site that also plays host to campaigns to draft Al Gore to run for president, close fur factories in China, and shut down the Federal Reserve, implored, “Together we can make the world of chocolate a better place!”
During the Glastonbury music festival in June, a group of Wispa fans stormed the stage while Iggy Pop was performing and displayed a banner reading, “Bring Back Wispa.”
As Cadbury deals with the aftermath of a scare over salmonella contamination of some of its chocolate bars, and struggles with a plan to sell or split off its United States soft drink business, Wispa gives the company a feel-good public relations diversion.
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