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Approaching everything with a triangular mindset for Toblerone | #BehindTheBranding

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Toblerone recently unveiled a new brand story and visual identity redesign for its iconic chocolate bar to “encourage uniqueness in all its forms, empower individuals and pay tribute to the importance of being stubbornly triangle in a world of squares.”

Conceived through collaboration between Toblerone and strategic brand creative agency Bulletproof, Toblerone’s new brand story draws on the brand’s heritage of being different in the traditional world of chocolate – its shape as well as its original signature taste. It brings a new relevance and appeal to chocolate fans around the world, showing up in unexpected ways through creative execution, tone of voice and activation.

The new visual identity includes a redrawn wordmark, a complementary typeface and a modern and disruptive colour palette. The revitalisation of the Toblerone wordmark drew inspiration from the Toblerone archives, reintroducing the character of the original through bold quirks such as an off-centre counter in the ‘O’ and an unconventionally thickened base to the ‘E’.

All visual executions, including on pack, supporting brand world and digital communications, are based on three core design principles: ‘defined by our edges’, ‘strikingly different’ and ‘vibrantly positive’.

The creative elements also include a contemporary, yet quirky graphic style and a new ‘Tobler’ signature inspired by the founder’s sign-off on an archive poster. The redesign also modernised and streamlined the mountain logo, in line with the geometric and ‘be more triangle’ aesthetic, while retaining its famous hidden bear.

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Nick Rees, CCO at Bulletproof talks us through they distilled the brand’s new purpose, creating the distinctive call to action, “Be More Triangle,” which informed the development of a whole new brand world. 

What was the brief for the rebrand?

On the surface, the brief was to add modernity and relevance, setting Toblerone up with a powerful and extensive new brand world. But behind this, there was a deeper ambition: to reposition Toblerone into a more premium and progressive space. 

We wanted to put the consumer experience at the heart of everything and really celebrate the uniqueness and quality of the product at every turn. Instead of simply broadcasting the brand stories, it was important to us that we presented them in a way that consumers could truly connect with and find their own meaning and significance within.

How did the initial pitch/brainstorming phase go?  

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We always push our thinking to the extremes in the first stage to test and provoke the team’s limits. We came up with a number of exciting directions, but it was the idea of ‘A triangle in a sea of squares’ that stuck. It was one of those ideas where you could feel the energy rise in the room every time we discussed it. 

The founder story of Theodor Tobler, a true progressive thinker with a worldly and inclusive mindset, dovetailed so beautifully with what we all want to witness more of today. The expression of ‘Be More Triangle’ was born and we never looked back. 

There aren’t many brands that can be distilled down to equity in a single and universally understood shape. To then draw out the meaning and relevance behind this choice was incredible. We approached every challenge with a triangular mindset. A great rule for life! 

Did you learn anything new during the project?

The most important thing that we learned during this project is the value of a strong and aligned team. The client team were lean, hungry and focussed, and our agency partners were open and collaborative. Collectively, we worked very hard to have each other’s backs and to keep ourselves true to the ‘Be More Triangle’ mindset.

What details are you most proud of and why? 

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Both Vini Vieira and Beth Drummond, our Creative Director and Design Director on the Toblerone project, are true big thinkers but also master crafters. The care and consideration that went into this work is really inspiring to witness and can be seen in the details of the design. For example, the logo now runs over the edges of the pack.

A brave move that tunes into one of our design principles, ‘Defined by our edges’. We used this principle in many other touchpoints but I think it really stands out on pack.

I also especially love the execution of the Toblerone wordmark. All of the quirks that had been driven out over time have now been lovingly reinstalled. I’m a big believer in unapologetically wearing our differences for all to see - it’s what makes us unique in the first place. Here, it gives Toblerone its personality, reminding people of its heritage while also driving it into the present day. 

What visual influences fuelled your solution?

Everything and nothing. I always feel awkward when we refer to ‘raiding the vault’ or ‘looking back to look forward’. But Toblerone has been a design icon for its whole life and has many memorable advertising campaigns and expressions under its belt. We referenced this history a lot but not without overlaying our own Bulletproof approach too.  

We love simple and powerful expressions of assets, but they need to have meaning. Balancing bold and confident with crafted beauty is our priority and we find our way through this on every project.

Looking back, there seems to be a period through the 1960s and 1970s where the most iconic campaigns were simple and equity driven. When we were digging through the Toblerone archives, our favourite campaigns were from this era, and I feel like there’s a nod to that in our work. 

What do you hope it achieves for the brand?

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‘Celebrating uniqueness in all its forms’ is a cause we can all get behind and offers itself up to many creative interpretations. The fact that this work is merely the foundations to build more meaningful activations in the future is exciting – the best is yet to come.

What would you do differently if you could do it over again?

This genuinely isn’t something that has come up in this process, purely because the whole team have seen this as a constant ‘test and learn’ rather than a ‘switch on/switch off’ project. Throughout all of this we responded to data and research in a way that meant we could be agile and correct mistakes as we went. I’m the harshest critic of our own work, however with Toblerone I’m still very much in the ‘love it’ phase.

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