Ritter Sport: Squaring the Gamer (Happy Friday)

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„What’s up, Gamers?“: With a banana-yoghurt composition, the chocolate company Ritter-Sport positions itself as a gamer-understander.

Dear GamesWirtschaft reader,
Dear GamesWirtschaft reader,

the one with far far By far the most read and most shared post this week was neither the expected Gamescom commitment from Ubisoft nor the content of the NRW coalition agreement. But: the market launch of the limited-edition Ritter Sport chocolate variety Ingame, which after “fruity banana” and “fresh yoghurt” should taste.

I can’t tell you whether that’s the casebecause, contrary to the statutes of the press supply program (PVP) of the German confectionery industry, no test samples have yet been received. But because I’ll be in Berlin in the coming days anyway, the special edition will definitely be in the Ritter Sport flagship store (there really is) can be organized – provided that the early sell-out does not occur. The special model is not commercially available.

In any case, the 100-gram bar delivers a whopping 576 calories for a gallant €2.49, caused by a mixture of sugar, palm fat, cocoa butter, butterfat, skimmed milk yoghurt powder and at least 4 grams of banana pulp. The advertising texts are overflowing with technical vocabulary – no cliché may go unused, as required by law. be there “High Scores Soared”, “Supplies farmed” and “N00bs relegated to the bottom of the ladder”.

Nun.

The pending penalty – namely the renaming in Ritter eSport – was unfortunately awarded, as Activision marketer Gojic rightly stated.

The remarkably high level of interest in this ‘Limited Edition’ – which was developed in cooperation with the new agency OKA Gaming – is at least a light balm for the battered traditional brand, which has had to take a beating for months for the continued delivery to supermarkets in Moscow , Saint Petersburg and Novosibirsk.

The usually undiplomatic Ukrainian chief diplomat Melnyk etch: “Square. Practically. Blood.”

For this you need to know: Russia is of enormous economic importance for Alfred Ritter GmbH & Co. KG. Because apart from the home market, nowhere else does the Swabian medium-sized company sell so many products – which has been a rather unpleasant situation since February 24 at the latest and made a somewhat contrite PR statement necessary at the end of March.

The message: Despite persistent criticism and unlike its competitors, Ritter Sport will not withdraw from Russia – also with reference to the more than 1,700 jobs and the fate of the “Cocoa Farming Families” in Ghana or Peru.

Since then, the chocolate producer has been in a pretty hopeless self-defense mode – also because steep PR sleeves like “For us, responsibility is more important than profit” yes, come across much more credibly if they were supported apart from raw materials and production with a view to the sales network. At least the surplus from the ongoing sales in Russia should be donated.

Ritter is silent on Twitter: There has been radio silence for three months. But over there Instagram the whole cancellation rage continues to be discharged under every single posting – even after the announcement of the ‘gaming chocolate’. Tempers probably wouldn’t even settle down with a new edition of the variety ‘Chocolate & Grass’ (“Full Pot of Whole Milk Rush”) appease – or with a comeback of the variant ‚Einhorn‘ (only genuine with raspberry casssis rainbow).

This social media battle is unwinnable. The fronts are hardened. After all, who can rule out with absolute certainty that a rum, grape and nut delivery stop could not bring about the decisive turning point in the war? Together with the Panzerhaubitze 2000, of course.

But one thing is obvious: In contrast to – let’s say – Coca-Cola, Ritter Sport understood the ‘gamer’ quite well and picked it up. It’s actually not that complicated to hit a nerve with this grateful, if not to say starved, audience. Haribo recently pressed Super Mario coins, stars and mushrooms into fruit gum and filled them into bags. Result: big hello, empty shelves. And the Munich start-up Yfood released the second gaming edition in the spring with ‘Team Kiba’ (cherry-banana).

So it works.

Pringles (i.e. Kellogg’s), McDonald’s, Müllermilch, Warsteiner, Red Bull anyway – alongside car manufacturers, mobile communications and the financial sector, the food sector was and is by far the most active branch of industry, which recognized gaming and e-sports as a marketing gateway at a very early stage. There is always eating and drinking.

And if the little coward bottler “great potential in the gamer scene” sees, my gut feeling says: There is more to come. Much more.

Or like the Future Shopper Report 2021 so nice to the point brings: „What makes gamers so interesting is that there are so many of them.“

Enjoy your meal and have a nice weekend

Petra Happy
Editor-in-Chief GamesWirtschaft

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