M&M’s will open its first shop outside the States in London’s Leicester Square tomorrow. The US chocolate brand that is worth around £1.7 billion and belongs to Mars, Inc follows the trend of so called ‘retailtainment’ where global brands use their flagship stores as tourist attractions as well as shops. For instance, Disney recently re-designed its Oxford Street store to include famous Disney characters, a cinema and its own ‘closing ceremony’ at the end of each day.

Title: American Rom
Advertiser/Client: Kandia Dulce
Product/Service: Snack
DM/Advertising Agency:
McCann Erickson Bucharest, Romania

The brief from the client:

Romania’s ROM chocolate bar is the traditional Romanian chocolate. Launched in 1964 with the Romanian flag on its wrapper, it had an ageing, nostalgic consumer base and was losing ground with the young generation. In a category in which success means continuously attracting younger fans, ROM’s nationalistic values were a disadvantage. Young Romanians are disillusioned and cynical, with only 12% describing themselves as patriots. They prefer ‘cool’ American confectionery brands like Snickers and Mars. ROM—the chocolate bar bearing the Romanian flag—needed to gain appeal to youngsters with few national values.

Brand and packaging design consultancy We Are Pure has secured a contract with Slavyanka, one of the biggest names in Russia’s confectionery sector. The consultancy won a three-way pitch to secure the deal, which will see the team reposition, rationalise and develop Slavyanka’s extensive product range. They will become the first agency outside of Russia to work alongside the confectionery giant.

Repeated conflicts and misunderstanding induced by extreme individualism of all team members, have caused M&M’s spokescandies to split and pursue their solo careers. Red has quickly discovered a new opportunity and is said to become a spokesman for the Oregon Cherry Company. Blue has joined Blue Man’s Group, while Ms. Green is about to publish her own book entitled ‘Our bodies, Our Shells ‘. Orange has escaped the world and is hiding somewhere in the forest in fear of being eaten.

To celebrate the release of new Snickers Peanutbutter Squares, Mars Chocolate North America has rolled out a new Facebook application that allows users to change the ‘Like’ button on their profile page into ‘Love’ button. This tool is a part of the online campaign aimed at attracting more Facebook users to the page dedicate to the newly-released Snickers Peanut Butter Squared.

The new product that consists of two square pieces is available in most mass, food and convenience stores and farmacies across the United States at a recommended price of $.89.