🍫🚚 Tony’s Chocolonely “Chocotruck” 🍫🚚
Background: The Netherlands’ #1 chocolate brand, Tony’s Chocolonely, came to the US but
they were having a hard time spreading the word about their mission to make 100% slave-free chocolate.
The Idea: A Chocotruck that metaphorically represents the “Bean To Bar Journey” was sent on a 4-month long nationwide tour,
activating in 10 cities and appearing at college campuses, food & music festivals, spontaneous street pop-ups, and SXSW in Austin.
The Execution: The truck was built to be equal parts entertaining and educational — with a flashy exterior to attract attention and draw people in for free chocolate samples
& an immersive exhibit inside with interactive and simple digital displays to tell Tony’s story in a quick, digestible, and fun way.
Crazy About Chocolate
The outside represented Tony’s “Crazy” Brand Pillar with bold, larger-than-life graphics, light-up elements to boost energy, and add a lot of humor.
It was equipped with a pop-out tasting booth with easy access to chocolate samples for an improved guest experience & maximum throughput.
Serious About People
The inside represented Tony’s “Serious” Brand Pillar with interactive displays in an immersive storytelling experience
that left guests with a deep understanding of Tony’s Mission, Promise, Impact, and Sourcing.
Life On The Road
Casting the Tony’s “Chocotruck Captains” gave us our first social and PR push.
They fulfilled the Brand Ambassador role, getting paid to have fun, drive responsibly, and talk to thousands of people while traveling around the country for 4 months.
Then the 🍫🚚 tour started making news of it’s own —
popping up in campus press & local media wherever it went.
✨ Chocotruck Captain Celebrities? ✨
👇👇👇 Some outlets even covered the crew itself 👇👇👇
A wheely big challenge...
The Chocotruck had to be an operational and street-legal vehicle while being an activation booth and a roving billboard.
Everything had to be smartly packed-in to allow quick and easy install at each event.
Where is the Chocotruck now???
Glad you asked. We designed it for reuse because A) it’s good for the environment which is also in line with their corporate mission and B) it unlocked more dollars for fabrication if we shifted the thinking from “what can we build for one activation” to “what can we create that would provide years and years of branded moments.”
The agency won because we got more dollars to achieve a bigger creative ambition and Tony’s won because they’re continuing to reskin the truck for more activations.
Last time I saw it… the Chocotruck had been reskinned for a get out the vote campaign and was featured in a Forbes article
about how Tony’s Chocolonely had won over fans in the US (which also means we accomplished the goal! We really did it!).
The Team
Agency: Roundhouse
Founder, Executive Creative Director: Joe Sundby
Creative Director, AD: Kyle Everett | Creative Director, CW: Nate Totten
Experiential Producer: Dominic Keska
Project Manager: Rita Badalamenti
Director of Account Service: Stacy Garnand
Fabrication/Design Partners: Axiom Custom