Ghirardelli Go Dark Event

To raise awareness for Ghirardelli's Intense Dark Chocolate line, we designed an event coinciding with Earth Hour, a global effort to raise awareness about climate change. On March 28, Bay Area Ghirardelli fans gathered for a memorable candle-filled night in Ghirardelli Square culminating with a count down to Earth Hour and turning off the iconic Ghirardelli sign. With over 6,000 people in attendance, the event garnered a lot of press on social and Ghirardelli loved the event so much, they are planning to throw it again.

The Event

The attendees sampled over 25,000 squares of Intense Dark Chocolate during blind tastings with takeaway notecards. Other activities included Athleta led candle-lit yoga sessions, a luminary path inspired by San Francisco's labyrinths and table-top cacao bean zen gardens. 

Blind tastings

Luminary Labyrinth

cacao zen boxes

Candlelit yoga

A lot of behind the scenes work went into creating the GoDark Earth Hour event. From scouting the space to plan the perfect flow for fans, to creating the signage my partner and I were involved in every decision making process.

signage & collaterAl

Social

We spread the word through Ghirardelli’s very popular social channels by geo-targeting San Francisco Bay Area residents and created a Facebook event page for them to RSVP. The yoga-in-the-dark event had limited spots and were all booked within 24 hours. To make the event accessible outside the Bay Area, we asked fans to create their own Intense Dark parties – each social post shared a different idea for how to participate.

CREDITS

Agency: Edelman

Role: Senior Designer

Team: Derekh Froude, Associate Creative Director; Natalie Purbrick, Senior Copywriter