This will have the watermelons in apoplexy.

Every January 2nd, Cadburys Creme Eggs appear in the shops, staying there until just after Easter.

This year, Easter was particularly early, shortening the season somewhat, so I wasn’t overly surprised to see something in the shops, called Twisted. It is basically a long, thin, twisted Cadburys Creme Egg and it tastes just as gooey!

It apparently launches on Monday, but we picked some up in ASDA last Tuesday and saw more on the counter of our “Premier Shop” so it must be on soft launch in Yorkshire.

I found the Press Release online, reproduced below. It is always interesting to read these sorts of things to see a different slant on the world.

Cadbury Trebor Bassett (CTB), the UK’s No.1 confectionery manufacturer, will be providing the Creme Egg experience all year round with the launch of Cadbury Creme Egg Twisted.

For POS or more information about Cadbury Creme Egg Twisted, please call the Cadbury Trebor Bassett hotline on 0870 191 7343.

The new product has Creme Egg “goo” twisted in a chocolate tube and has an RRP of £0.46.

Launching on 19th May, Cadbury Creme Egg Twisted is CTB’s biggest chocolate innovation this year. There will also be a brand new TV advertising campaign airing on 21st May to promote the bar.

A £2 million marketing spend will support the launch, including TV advertising, digital, PR and dedicated point of sale (POS). Cadbury Creme Egg Twisted, which replaces the Cadbury Dairy Milk variant, reflects the personality of the Creme Egg brand in a fun and novel way, delivering the same great taste in an innovative bar.

Twisted is the perfect solution for on–the-go consumption and the success and popularity of the Creme Egg brand offers a unique opportunity for retailers to capitalise on the all year round sales.

The TV advertising campaign will carry the strapline, “It’s no Creme Egg… it’s Twisted!” and picks up where the recent ‘Here today, Goo tomorrow’ ads for Cadbury Creme Egg left off.

Out of the wreckage of an exploded Creme Egg the new Twisted bar – the evil cousin of the Creme Egg - comes to life in a sinister, horror-style transformation and begins causing mayhem.

As with the Cadbury Creme Egg adverts in which the eggs embark on a series of amusing missions to ‘release their goo’, the Cadbury Creme Egg Twisted adverts will have a similarly light-hearted tone, showcasing the mischievous personality of the new bar.

The first screening of the ad is scheduled to take place on 21st May during the high profile Champions League final. There will be two adverts, both 30 seconds in length beginning with a top and tail format for first few days only, showing 10 seconds at the start of the break and the last 20 seconds at the end.

Research from CTB revealed that 90% of consumers would like the Creme Egg experience throughout the year and as the “goo”, not the egg shape, is the key driver for consumption, the new format will appeal to both existing consumers and promote new trial.
Kate Harding, Trade Communications Manager at Cadbury Trebor Bassett comments: “Cadbury Creme Egg is the number one selling chocolate single in Spring and we are very excited about the launch of Cadbury Creme Egg Twisted which we hope will prove extremely popular with consumers.

“Twisted reflects the Cadbury Creme Egg personality in a convenient to eat and exciting format that will become part of shoppers repertoire all year round. Retailers should take advantage of the dedicated POS and use it in-store to drive trial at launch.”

(Source: Cadbury Trebor Bassett, via Talkingretail.com)

I had the unexpected opportunity to go out for a take away one night last week. I went to a small Italian Takeaway called Pizza Bello in Morley, somewhere that I have heard others rave about but never got round to trying out.

It is in a fairly small building near the Telephone Exchange and is a family run business. They only open four days a week, from 5pm to Midnight. They are very successful but known to close down when they go away on holidays. (Such is their brand reputation that they are better off not trading than getting others in).

It is interesting to watch them in action on a busy evening. Two men make the Pizzas, mostly thin base but occasionally deep pan and those folded Calzone ones that look like huge Cornish pasties. A third man tends to the big kebab machine, skillfully slicing the revolving meat & frying burgers as required. Meanwhile the Matriarch tends to the cash desk, taking phone orders & slicing the Pizzas. I was struck by how well she knew her customers and the orders passing through, like an air traffic controller with their “big picture” of where the planes are in their sector.

I have to say that the Pizza was very good, it was a Hot Shot consisting of mozzarrella, tomato, green peppers, red onions, pepperoni and green chilli . The best one I ever had was what I christened a Mapperley Mighty Meaty when I used to live in Nottingham. Maybe I’ll try the Bello Meat Feast on my Birthday.

I find marketing interesting from an oblique point of view- I have worked in marketing handling technical product management before and I am always interested in how companies successfully sell their ideas (& sometimes how they don’t!)

We went to Salou last Summer with Thomson, a large British package holiday Company brand, part of the German TUI Group. There wasn’t anything in particular about choosing them over the competition, just the right mix of hotel, flights and pricing. Anyway, Thomson are big on keeping Customers engaged, with frequent email offers of teasers.

Last week, a personalised mini-brochure arrived which featured our last holiday and suggestions for future ones. This was a rather clever hook- it had a few recognisable photos of Salou in it and had the family name woven into the body text all over the place.

This has to be a rather expensive marketing tool though, as to personalise an eight page full colour stapled brochure must be expensive on computer processing as well as the individual printing.

As it happens, all of our 2008 holidays are sorted and our long haul carrier of choice is Virgin Atlantic for 2009. (We are frequent Virgins, a contradiction in terms of course).