Faced with injunction: Gifting campaign for Tony’s Chocolonely

• #Campaign

How we acted as the influencer marketing agency involved

“Raising awareness of the biggest problem in the cocoa industry: Fair prices”. This was precisely the aim of the Tony’s Chocolonely campaign. The chocolate manufacturer planned to increase public pressure on the main players in the chocolate industry in a very special way. How? By mimicking chocolate bars from the best-known brands and sending them to hundreds of content creators in the DACH region via a gifting campaign to increase the reach of this important issue. We want to show you why Tony’s was confronted with an injunction as part of this campaign and how Tony’s and we at Lookfamed acted as the agency involved.

Our role in the campaign

As an influencer marketing agency, we were commissioned by Tony’s to coordinate the gifting campaign. To increase the reach of this important topic, we identified and contacted almost 600 content creators on Instagram and TikTok to get them involved in the campaign. The creators were able to sign up to a list if they were interested and then received the chocolates from us in return, which they could then share on their social media. The difference to today’s more common influencer campaigns is that there was no monetary compensation. If the creators wanted to promote the cause of Tony’s, they received the chocolate bars and presented them to their community – without remuneration. This is known in the industry as the aforementioned “gifting campaign”.

The aim of the Tony’s campaign

The aim of the gifting campaign was to achieve the widest possible reach for the message and thus draw attention to the abuses in the cocoa industry. To this end, gifting boxes were sent to various thematically appropriate creators with a wide range of reach across all platforms.

Tony’s wanted to set a good example and ensure that farmers are paid fairly for their work in the future. To raise awareness, the chocolate bars were modeled on the biggest and best-known producers in the industry to show that the “big players” are not yet sufficiently committed to fair pay in the cocoa industry.

How did the injunction against Tony’s come about?

In an Instagram statement at the end of February, the brand informed that one of the counterfeit brands concerned had filed a lawsuit against Tony’s for trademark infringement. Instead of letting this get them down or canceling the campaign, Tony’s decided to fight on anyway.

But how was the complaint dealt with? Tony’s reacted very quickly and produced the previously purple-colored chocolate bar in gray. In addition, the website was adapted and the social media posting was written as information. The promotional packs that had not yet gone out to creators were also adapted. The social media posting with the purple-colored bar was also taken offline.

And how did we act as an influencer marketing agency? We were immediately informed by Tony’s about the injunction. We then directly informed all creators and told them about the current situation. We also asked them to stop displaying purple panels with immediate effect and to remove them from existing social media posts. By acting quickly together, we were able to get everyone involved on board in no time at all.

Learnings from the gifting campaign with Tony’s

This special campaign with the chocolate manufacturer Tony’s has taught us a few lessons as an agency.

• You win Creators with an important message

An influencer campaign without monetary remuneration? Many people would say that this is hardly possible today. But thanks to the strong message from Tony’s and the good communication with the creators, we as an agency were able to win over hundreds of accounts to whom we sent the products and who also shared them with their followers.

• Communication is key

Of course, this is nothing new in marketing. However, the campaign and the handling of the lawsuit with Tony’s once again explicitly showed how important fast and, above all, open communication is. After the complaint was received, we as an agency entered into direct talks with the creators and explained the situation. The result: the creators reacted almost entirely positively and still believe in Tony’s mission.