Pointing to research conducted on people’s opinions regarding Ülker, Yıldız Holding Chief Marketing Officer Ahad Afridi said that “We recognize that everyone, be it a child, a teenager, a woman, a man, a student or a businessman has had at least one happy moment involving an Ülker product. We built our campaign on this strong brand reality.” 

Ülker celebrates its 65th anniversary with an advertising campaign built around “A Happy Moment, Making Life Beautiful” concept. The campaign, was designed around the idea that everyone from age 7 to 70 has had a happy moment with Ülker and is has been planned as a 360 degree communication on TV, in cinemas and with press, outdoor and online ads. The first stage of the campaign, are TV commercials that will on air on national TV channels. Cinema, press, outdoor and online ads will also start in the next few days.

Everyone has a happy moment with Ulker

Based on research conducted to find out what people think about Ülker, Yıldız Holding Chief Marketing Officer Ahad Afridi said that “We recognize that everyone, be it a child, a teenager, a woman, a man, a student or a businessman has had at least one happy moment involving an Ülker product.  These ‘happy moments and memories’ have made their way into daily conversations.  People tell each other how they straighten Ülker Çokomel’s packages and put them between the sheets of their notebooks or how they struggle to eat the last part of the Çokokrem that remains in the tube. Ülker unites people with warm feelings of happiness, joy and sharing. So, we built our campaign on this strong brand reality.”

We stayed true to our founder’s philosophy

New Zealander Gregor Nicholas, known internationally as the director of  “Broken English” shot the commercials with Belgian director of photography Danny Hiele . 300 actors were used to present Ülker  “Happy Moments” . Gregor Nicholas, who has won awards for his short movies in the Chicago and Venice film festivals,  was chosen to be the director because of his popular commercials and talent at capturing people’s feelings on film.

Credentials:

•    The TV films commercials were shot as a series, took ; taking place in two different locations and produceed formed of two different films. The film that takes place on the a boat relates tells about the happy moments experienced by of people of all ages, with various backgrounds,  of different statutesfrom many different walks of life, different lives and different ages.

•    The secondother film takingook place ion a university campus and  featurestell about the happy moments that have existed for decades and achieve to have touched enter the lives of the everyach coming new generation- happy moments that have changed and grown ; change and grow without losing their energy impact as a social phenomenaon.

•    The shooting employed a Shots were performed by a crew of 80 people and 300 actors pver a players in 5 day periods. Actors The players were had been chosen at the end of after a one month preparation period.

•    One day-long shooting was performed was filmed from on a speed boat to capture the scenes offor the Istanbul views in the boat commercial.

•    For the two-day shootfilmings of  for the boat commercial, a boat was rented from the Istanbul Intercity Boat Lines and the shootings completed in 2 days.

•    The shootings for the campus commercial shoot took were completed in two days to complete at the Beyazıt Campus of at the İIstanbul University’s Beyazıt Campus. An actual student band  real music band, formed of young students, performed in the concert scene in the commercial.

Despite the fact that many companies including Cadbury itself are struggling to deal with rising raw material costs (witness Hershey Foods’ swoon from No. 5 to No. 6 as sales fell an estimated $36 million), Candy Industry’s list of the Top 100 international confectionery companies suggests consumers are willing to spend more than ever on sweet treats.

Total combined sales for the Top 100 confectionery companies in the world hit $91 billion last year—an eye-popping gain of almost $10 billion from the previous year and about 50% more than five years ago, when the Top 100 posted sales of $60 billion.

Now that’s some sizable growth. But before anyone goes and sprains an elbow from patting him or herself on the back, there are a few caveats. Some of the increase in the Top 100 total this year is due to factors apart from incremental sales gains.

Exchange rates always affect the standings. But this year, the U.S. dollar plummeted, losing about 11% of its value vs. the euro from Jan. 1-Dec. 10, 2007 and raising the sales of just about every European Union manufacturer on the list.

Then, like every year, Candy Industry corrected a couple oversights from past lists. Only this time the oversights appear a little higher up the ladder.

Spain’s Natra debuted at No. 33 with sales of $427 million. Poland’s Grupa Jutrzenka and Wawel landed at Nos. 56 and 81, respectively, posting revenues of $180 million and $100 million. And Ukraine’s Roshen came in at No. 68 with $140 million. All replaced companies with sales of less than $60 million.

Lastly, a number of acquisitions also drove the overall total. Wrigley began the year by buying Russian chocolate maker (and former No. 71) A. Korkunov. The deal added about $100 million to Wrigley’s total and opened a slot for a company like Georgia Nut and its $70 million in revenues.

Two of the new names, Jutrzenka and Natra, debuted higher due to a spree of acquisitions. Jutrzenka picked up Polish wafer maker Kaliszanka and its $50 million in sales this summer. Natra nabbed chocolate spread manufacturers All Crump of Belgium and Nutkao from Italy, adding more than $130 million to its revenues.

Groupe Cemoi acquired a majority stake in French rival Jacquot de Troyes (annual turnover of about $175 million). Cadbury Schweppes picked up Japanese reduced-sugar confectionery expert Sensei Foods. All acquired companies were previously not listed.

And in the biggest move of all, Kraft Foods buyout of Danone Group’s LU biscuit division (another non-listee) will likely propel the company past Hershey and Wrigley next year.

Still, $10 billion can’t be completely explained away by monetary fluctuations and growth through acquisition. The industry appears pretty healthy, fueled in part by rising demand in developing nations.

Rampant new plant activity in those regions—including Perfetti Van Melles’s new facilities in Vietnam and India, the joint Arcor/Barcel plant in Mexico, and Mars and Wrigley each building in Russia—suggests bigger numbers to come.

Who knows? Next year might top that $100 billion mark.