1. Categorie:
Regional campaign
Title of campaign:
"Laima chocolate bear"
short common description of the campaign::
"Laima" is the oldest chocolate producer in Latvia and the largest confectionery
maker in the Baltics. As such, the company needs and implements PR activities
not only in Latvia, but in Lithuania and Estonia as well.
While "Laima" is virtually synonymous with "chocolate" in Latvia, in Estonia their
local producer "Kalev" enjoys similar position. Therefore, we felt that we need to
come up with something emotional in order to create positive feelings towards
"Laima" in Estonia.
Goal: In relation to April 1st joke theme, to create a publicity event that will
increase positive publicity and attitudes towards "Laima" in Estonia.
research work done during the campaign:

2. Project was born during a brainstorming session and finalized in cooperation with
partner PR agency in Estonia.
One of the funniest and most popular stories regarding Latvian-Estonian relations
in 2006 was a story about a mystery Latvian bear that appeared and for a while
terrorized inhabitants of a small island in the middle of Gulf of Riga. While the
original bear eventually left the island (and supposedly swam back to Latvia), PR
agency decided to create a chocolate bear and to send it to the small island in order
to mark the one-year anniversary of the whole ordeal.
We had no doubts that the project will attract a lot of positive publicity, so the rest
was just logistics and implementation of our PR plan in Latvia and Estonia.
strategy:
Strategy:
To create and publicly present a chocolate bear to Ruhnu island municipality as a
sweet anniversary gift from "Laima" and as a replacement of the real Latvian bear
that visited the island last April.
Two presentation events to be held - first in Riga and next day in Tallinn, Estonia.
Target audience:
General population of both countries.

3. Main message and lead:
We all remember well that a year ago media informed about a bear that was seen
swimming on a piece of ice to Ruhnu Island. Active bear hunting continued for
several months, but with no success. Last news is that this bear did swim back to
Latvia and currently is in Kurzeme forests.
Scientists still argue if all this is possible, but the heroic Latvian bear has already
become Latvian and Estonian folklore personage.
To celebrate the first anniversary since bear's journey to Ruhnu Island, JSC
"Laima" has made a special gift for inhabitants of Ruhnu Island - a chocolate bear.
This bear is made of big piece of chocolate, therefore it weights about 36 kilos.
It is 45 centimeters tall and it took 4 days to make.
After few hours it will be delivered to Tallinn, where tomorrow it will be given as
a gift to the head of Ruhnu Island municipality, who will deliver it by plane to
Ruhnu Island.
Place and time:
April 3, 2007: Media presentation event of the bear in "Laima" factory with
company representatives giving on the spot print and TV interviews.
April 4, 2007: Presentation of the bear to Estonian media in Tallinn before its
departure to Ruhnu. Participants: Estonian sales representative of "Laima" and
Ruhnu Island mayor.
Our PR agency was responsible for finding a sculptor willing to work with
chocolate, as well as organizing and coordinating all the logistics. It created all
publicity materials and organized publicity events in Latvia. It also provided all

4. the media materials and coordinated work of Estonian agency.
Results of the campaign and evaluation::
Even before it was unveiled, the first rumors about the bear became a huge
sensation. Just around April 1st it hit all the Estonian and Latvian media - radios,
TV, online and print. Media swarmed presentation events in Riga and Tallinn.
Story also attracted attention of the local reporters of such news agencies as BBC,
Agence France Presse (AFP) and Deutsche Press Agentur (DPA).
Within days our monitoring noticed story appearing in many European countries
as far as Spain. It also was carried by many of Russia's news portals, and appeared
even in Taiwan.
While all this was great, the main emphasis was on getting publicity in Latvia and
Estonia, which was successfully fulfilled.
What we had not planned for and what was a definite bonus - the chocolate bear
story started a life of its own. During summertime it appeared in travel articles
about sights to see and visit in Ruhnu Island. In September 2007 islanders decided
that they will eat the original bear and create a sculpture copy of it. This news
again was carried by Estonian and Latvian press with almost sorrowful "they will

5. eat our little bear" headlines.
In December 2007, right about Christmas time, in presence of "Laima"
representatives, who had arrived with presents, the bear was divided up, eaten and
replacement statue unveiled. This again hit the news in both countries.
All in all, this resulted in almost a year-long publicity for "Laima" with total media
hits more than we could monitor and count.