Yesterday we looked at Swedish communications agency Prime’s Carwinism case study for Audi Sweden. The company scooped five accolades at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival last week, and today we’re looking at the second gold-award winning campaign, for Kraft Foods’ Aladdin chocolate box.

The main goal was to re-invigorate the brand, which has been a Christmas staple in Sweden for 70 years (much like Quality Street or Roses in the UK). Aladdin also wanted their target group (a family with younger children), to encounter and interact with the chocolates through new channels and in a context they weren’t necessarily used to.

For Christmas 2009 Kraft planned to introduce a new type of chocolate to the box. Like M&Ms has done before, Prime leveraged this for PR value and turned it into a community-voted competition that would see people decide which praline would have to ‘go’ to make room.

The fans turned out to be truly loyal to their favorite chocolates – films, posters, groups on Facebook, fan pages, T-shirts and blogs dedicated to specific pralines were created. The brand, which has close ties to family traditions specific to each voter, was once again a talking point as people realised that their favourite might be the one to be cut.

A digital polling station was created on a campaign site, through which Swedes could make their voice heard four weeks prior to Christmas. The largest tabloid in Sweden, Aftonbladet, was tied into the online activity, receiving information in advance about the campaign and the final result. Bloggers and influential lovers/haters of each of the pralines were also contacted before the launch in order to start the debate. A fan page on Facebook was created in order to mobilise fans and create forums for discussion.

To strengthen the bond between chocolate lovers and their favourites within the Aladdin box, Prime personalised each of the chocolates and created a ‘flavour test’ on Facebook. Those taking the test then received a humorous personality analysis based on their favorite praline, again echoing M&Ms successful campaigns in the past.

A competition was also initiated by Aladdin fans themselves as they battled against each other to create the best campaign to save their chosen chocolate. ‘Campaign material’ was easy to download and as the intensity of the rivalry grew, Prime published the best campaigns on a blog to inspire others.

Over a month-long period, the campaign resulted in over 400,000 votes, more than 15,000 people became fans of the campaign on Facebook and 300 bloggers wrote about it. Over 140,000 people took the ‘flavour test’ and the Facebook application was number four on the list of the fastest growing applications in the world. Even in the light of heavy competition from new competitors, during the Christmas period sales increased with 26.5 percent compared to 2008. The campaign resulted in a reach of over 33 million and Aladdin’s market share increased with 2.8% with a revenue increase of 44% during this period.

The Aladdin box actually received a greater number of votes than the most voted-for politician in the 2009 Swedish election for the European Parliament.

As per my column for new media age this week, case studies that maximise digital comms play a vital role in helping to educate the rest of the industry and show brands just what can done. Bells and whistles aren’t the answer here, it’s often the more simple ideas that relate specifically to objectives and show clear results that are most beneficial.