As someone who has received a Bachelor’s in Advertising and a Master’s in LIS, I always have a particular interest in events that are heavily related to both of my studies. Google’s most recent announcement really hit the spot: On Twitter today it was announced that the newest version of Android will be called “Kit Kat”, a popular brand of chocolate wafer made by Nestle sold around the world (but, for those curious, sold and licensed by Hersey in the US).
The partnership goes much further than Nestle providing a name, however- it includes a full-blown advertising campaign. In addition to an awesome Android-themed update to the Kit Kat website (oddly enough the mobile version isn’t nearly as good), Nestle has announced Android Kit Kat bars, which will be released in 19 different markets around the world. Included in the chocolates are presumably codes that take you to the Android website where you can enter to win various Android-related prizes, ranging from Google Points to Nexus tablets.
In my opinion this is a much better deal for Kit Kat than Android- simply naming Android 4.4 “Kit Kat” will have a huge impact on sales- word of mouth and simply hearing (or saying) the name of a brand can have a large influence when choosing between a variety of options in a market segment (in this case candy), especially in a market where product loyalty is so low. But hey, it’s not like Google doesn’t already make billions (and billions) of dollars in sales, so if they need to bargain to use the name of an owned brand, why not sweeten the deal for the owner of it?
Personally I was hoping for Koala Yummies.
