So delicious, so vegan, so digital, so successful: Public video campaign helps Ritter Sport to become the most popular vegan chocolate brand

In 2023, Ritter Sport intends to continue its vegan success story and is succeeding with digital outdoor advertising from Ströer: Ritter Sport relied heavily on Ströer’s nationwide digital reach in public spaces from January to April to launch its new vegan varieties. During this period, all of Ströer’s digital OOH products, both indoor and outdoor, were placed at transport hubs such as train stations, streets, shopping centres and on underground and suburban railway platforms. The public video campaign generated 2.3 billion impressions during this period.

The results of Ströer’s market research – based on a prestigious online survey* – now prove that the public video campaign has made Ritter Sport vegan the best-known vegan chocolate brand. All success parameters of the campaign in the areas of brand awareness, first choice, advertising recall and activation show an upward trend. Both the unaided and aided brand awareness of Ritter Sport vegan developed positively over the course of the campaign – even compared to competing brands. Both surveys show an uplift between the baseline and measurement waves. Ritter Sport vegan is clearly ahead of the competition in first choice, also showing a positive trend between the waves. At the same time, Ritter Sport was able to boost its profile as a sustainable brand. The public video campaign had a positive impact on this factor.

The results at a glance:

• The brand awareness of Ritter Sport vegan was continuously increased both unaided (increase: Ix 150) and list-aided (increase: Ix 122).
• Ritter Sport vegan is significantly ahead of its competitors in first choice and has been able to extend its lead over time (increase: Ix 135).
• Ritter Sport was also able to continuously raise its profile as a sustainable brand (increase: Ix 142) and is seen as the most sustainable chocolate brand.
• Advertising recall for the current campaign was continuously increased both unaided (increase: Ix 167) and list-aided (increase: Ix 143). In both KPIs, Ritter Sport vegan is ranked first among all brands surveyed. The campaign is also achieving a high level of visibility.
• The campaign is pleasing, is seen as visually very appealing and easy to understand, with a clear identification of the sender.

“Our goal with the campaign was to create awareness for our new vegan products. The results confirm how well this has been achieved in the interplay between creation and the use of digital outdoor advertising,” says Michaela Holzäpfel, Head of Marketing at Ritter Sport. “As a sustainable family business, it is also pertinent for us to run our campaign in a climate-neutral way. In this respect, too, DOOH is a perfect match for us.”

Outdoor advertising – especially DOOH – is one of the lowest CO₂ media in the media mix in relation to impressions reached. With the greatest possible efficiency, Ströer also uses green electricity in all DOOH media in Germany. The company offsets remaining CO₂ emissions resulting from the advertising measures – for data centre operation and upstream processes and an apportionment from the Corporate Carbon Footprint (CCF) – by supporting certified climate protection projects. However, Ströer’s top priority is always to avoid and reduce CO₂ emissions as part of its Group-wide sustainability strategy.

“The results are further proof that digital outdoor advertising packs a punch when it comes to impact and performance, with Ritter Sport vegan becoming the best-known vegan chocolate brand in April 2023. Ultimately, our customers achieve nationwide reach in Germany through DOOH, which is almost unique in the media world considering users’ shifting usage. Outdoor advertising also utilises the emotional power of large and moving images. Ritter Sport’s creation has been able to convey the information via public video in an easily understandable and entertaining way,” says Michael Noth, Co-CEO Ströer Media Solutions.

*Ströer Advertising Effectiveness Measurement | Basis: Wave 0 n = 768, Measurement Wave 1 n = 750, Measurement Wave 2 n = 755.