EVENTS

Munich, Germany
19 January 2008

Our major goal was to increase Belcolade’s awareness and penetrate the premium positioning of the brand. To attract our most important customers we were looking for something really extraordinary that would make them travel a long way (up to 600 kilometres and more) to join the celebration.

A passionate event within a passionate event

We had the opportunity to celebrate the Belcolade Anniversary on January 19th within the prestigious "German Movie Ball" (Deutscher Filmball). This enabled us to combine our extraordinary chocolate brand with an extraordinary environment.

The German Movie Ball takes place each year in Munich in a historically known and glamorous hotel called "Bayerischer Hof". More than 1,000 guests are there year after year - since the 1970s. The special thing about this event is that you are only able to join, if you are either famous within the German movie & television world or you are a famous politician, or - invited by a sponsor, such as Belcolade!

We were allowed to have a separate room within the hotel where we could create a special Belcolade environment (e.g. table deco in Belcolade colours, branded menu cards…) and have dinner and conversations with our customers in a relaxed and private atmosphere.

During the evening Caroline Ouwerx (GM Belcolade) and Robert Fickers (GM Puratos Germany) welcomed our customers and informed them about the milestones of the past 20 years, and of course about the evening's highlights.

After the dinner Francis D'Hoore lead our guests through a chocolate & wine tasting session, like the one carried out at Salon du Chocolate in Paris and at Choc-o-laté in Bruges last year. Following the evening, the garlic & chocolate composition has become a subject that the German chocolate world is still discussing today, very passionately of course…!

Later in the evening until the early morning hours our customers joined the movie world, dancing and celebrating in the main ball room. Some of them even started a competition who was able to photograph and talk to the most movie stars!

And even more Belcolade chocolate: in the roulette room we had a booth where Philippe Lafond created a fantastic chocolate show piece during the evening. We also placed a chocolate fountain which was the perfect attraction for both our customers and for many many guests from the movie ball too.

Customer reactions

All in all we had 50 tickets for the event. We invited our most important customers and opinion leaders within the chocolate business. Just a couple of days after having sent out the invitations, our customers from all over the country replied and said they would like to join.

At the event everyone was dressed fabulously and the atmosphere during the entire evening was very friendly and relaxed. After the event we received numerous positive and enthusiastic reactions from a lot of customers by phone, letter or email.

We would also like to express our special thanks to the entire Belcolade Team who supported us enthusiastically and generously in the preparation and realisation of this event.