Chupa Chups: history of’a sweet brand with a taste of adventure Spain

Chupa Chups remains a symbol of youth, design and innovation. This leader in the lollipop segment is present on 5 continents and in over 160 countries. Its production amounts to 12 million units per day, or 17,000 tons per year.

Here is the story of this successful brand.

D’where the brand Chupa Chups comes from ?

L'history of Chupa Chups started in Spain. At 1957, the Catalan businessman Enric Bernat had a stroke of genius: put a candy on a small rod to avoid dirtying your fingers. He noticed that the main consumers of candy, children, tended to take it out of their mouths with their hands.

The creation of Chups was a real revolution, as no candy exclusively for children had been designed until then.

The marketing of the first lollipop started in 1958. It was first called Gol, because it was reminiscent of a football going into the goal, which was then represented by the mouth. However, that name didn't work.

The one in Chups was offered by a advertising agency solicited by Enric Bernat. It corresponds to the onomatopoeia of the sound produced when taking the candy out of the mouth. The name of the candy store has become Chupa Chups as a result of’a advertising campaign broadcast on the radio. This one repeated the message "chupa Chups", "chupa" being the Spanish word for "suck".

From there, theChupa Chups story was all mapped out. The brand was introduced to the Japanese market in 1977. Its launch in China took place 16 years later. In 1991, it opened its factory in Russia where consumers were quickly seduced by its lollipops. In 1997, Spain's King Juan Carlos went to Moscow to celebrate the billion units manufactured in this country.

Moreover, the success of the first stick candy was such that it even went into space. The astronauts of the MIR station took the candy with them during their mission in 1995.

In July 2006, the Chupa Chups brand was acquired by the Italian-Dutch confectionery group Perfetti Van Melle. It has subsequently diversified into various sectors, including that of clothing.

History of Chupa Chups: a logo created by Salvador Dalí

The redesign of its logo was a crucial step for thehistory of Chupa Chups. During the first decade after its launch, its visual identity proved to be quite successful simple. In order to develop the brand internationally, Enric Bernat called on the services of a consultant famous surrealist painter Salvador Dalí in 1968 to design a new logo.

The daisy-shaped background of Chupa Chups that is kept to this day was created by this artist. Concretely, he designed a yellow daisy around the "Chupa Chups" wordmark, which in turn was red. It took him less than an hour to complete this work.

Dalí also made some improvements that considerably influenced the recognition of the lollipop. He has notably insisted that the logo be placed on the upper part of the product, optimizing its visibility and giving the candy its own personality.

Communication strategy of Chupa Chups

Chupa Chups has always relied on the creative advertising to promote its products. Sometimes, its campaigns were so original that they was controversial. A perfect example of this is the slogan "For a less serious world", which was launched in 2010. However, this campaign with Chuck, the brand's mascot, was a success.

Chupa Chups products are not not only for children. To reach its targets, the brand does not hesitate to come and get them on the channels that they plebiscite. As an illustration, a Chupa Chups communication campaign on TikTok launched in April 2021 to attract teenagers.

The multi-target campaign conducted by the candy manufacturer in 2010 must also absolutely be mentioned. Two years earlier, he marketed a miniature version of his lollipop. The brand has been a hit with the public children, but also mothers of the family andformer smokers. The brand then decided to launch a call for’offers to make the mini-sucker known to a wider audience.

The competition was won by the’DDB agency who had the idea of designing a unique visual that would bring together young and old. This is how the characters Action Man and Sindy, models, have been chosen to appear with the mini-sucker in the mouth. During the week in which this ad was aired, the sales increased by 48% from for this product.

What followed was a real advertising saga including miniature characters displayed with a Chupa Chups.

On the other hand, a number of celebrities have been the protagonists of the brand's advertising campaigns over the years. Such was the case with Harrison Ford, of Mariah Carey, from Giorgio Armani, of Johan Cruyff or even Spice Girls.