So, after months of build-up. Yellow chocolate is finally here.
What are you on about?
Yellow chocolate. It’s the Yellow Pages‘ new and nifty idea, promoting the use of them to get the job done. I have to say that I think the yellow chocolate campaign was definitely a lot more engaging than the Yellow Treehouse from last time.
Josh has managed to get people’s buy-in and has travelled the length of the country with samples – a step up from the previous Auckland-centric idea.
The Marketing
Website
We live in New Zealand where it’s pretty much common knowledge that our internet speeds aren’t exceptional, particularly in rural areas. I though it was an interesting decision by Yellow to build the campaign website entirely in Flash. I think I visited it once, checked out a few videos, but got so tired of the pre-loaders numbers flipping over that I left. I didn’t go back. Luckily I’m an avid Facebook and Twitter user so I caught most of the “goings on” through those two medium and didn’t really feel I was missing out by not viewing the latest video.
Other phantom advertising
Other than a few TV ads, I didn’t see much advertising around – but that could be put down to my ignorance and lack of living in a big city, having adblock on my internet browser and not buying newspapers.
Unravelling the goodness
For a start, it’s kinda hard to get into. Once you’re in, the pineapple scent is overwhelming. I was disappointed when I first smelt the pineappley badness as I’m not partial to fake pineapple flavour and generally try and avoid yellow confectionary (think yellow wine gums, jet planes etc) because to me it tastes like puke. The only pineapple I do like is the pineapple of pineapple lumps but I also think they are done exceptionally well.
Inside the wrapper there’s a small card (a la a Wille Wonka ‘golden ticket’) with Josh’s take on the whole process. Nice to get a little more detail here. However, one thing I did notice is that the card is placed on the chocolate upside down. So when you are done reading the card and you lift it off the chocolate, the world ‘yellow’ on the actual chocolate bar is upside down. Not a biggie, but I’m a stickler for detail.
Not that you immediately notice the word ‘yellow’ anyway. The chocolate is yellow. Bright yellow. And yes, it’s bright yellow the whole way through! I don’t know about you, but I was expecting normal chocolate with some sort of yellow filling. I love the colour.
The taste – woe is me, it’s pineapple!
So, straight away there’s the ghastly pineapple flavour but if you let it linger in your mouth for a while, once the strong pineapple flavour gives way there is a pleasent creamyness to it. It’s smooth, not gritty and goes down easily though leaves a funny taste in your mouth once you’ve devoured it.
I would describe is as a milky bar (white chocolate) with a hint of pineapple. I couldn’t really identify any other flavours in there.
The verdict
I’ve just had my second sample of the chocolate and I’m still trying to decide if I like it or not.
I definitely wouldn’t buy it over “normal” chocolate, but then that’s not really the point of the exercise is it?
I dearly wish that Josh and his ‘team’ had gone for something a little different. Pineapple, banana and lemon were all expected flavours. What about a subtle honey, golden kiwifruit or something along the lines of Caramilk. Remember Caramilk? No, not caramello, Caramilk! Though all in all, I can’t complain. I didn’t go to any of the samplings (actually I’m not sure if he came to Upper Hutt?) so I couldn’t give my input.
Josh accomplished his mission – he made a yellow chocolate bar that tasted like yellow. You’re never going to impress everyone, but I think overall he did a good job. I’m sure some people will love it! At $2 a pop it’s definitely worth trying anyway, just to be a part of the product that is – yellow flavoured chocolate.