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Newcomer brand Beyond Dark wanted a bigger bite of the UK’s dark chocolate market. So they set out to make their little drops famous for ‘pleasure’. But many brands try to own emotions. The challenge was to be believable and newsworthy, without the luxury of a big advertising budget.

Beyond Dark embarked on a mission: to create the first ever scale for measuring pleasure. This would allow them to prove their pleasure credentials by measuring other lovely moments in life – and of course rival brands – versus drops of their chocolate, making Beyond Dark ‘the measure of pleasure’. An idea with the product’s unique ‘drop’ format at its heart.

To become newsworthy, the pleasure scale would need to be both scientifically credible and entertaining. So Beyond Dark teamed up with neuroscientists to hold a study. 100 participants were fitted up with the latest ‘EEG’ brainwave-reading headsets, set up to analyse pleasure for the first time. They then took a series of tests – blowing bubbles, stroking kittens, beautiful music... The documentary and news were released on ‘Blue Monday’, the nation’s most depressing day. The findings then became the advertising, from outdoor to the pack itself. For once, a brand’s emotional claims had been proven.