Sorry, Americans, there are no 'YouTube My Break' Kit Kats for you
YouTube and Kit Kat lovers across the pond have reason to gloat. Unless imported—and there is a legal settlement prohibiting such practice—"YouTube My Break" campaign chocolate bars will not be coming to these shores. Yesterday, Google and Nestlé announced the branding collaboration, which replaces the Kit Kat logo with "YouTube break" on 600,000 wrappers.
"Hershey does license the rights to Kit Kat in the U.S.," a company spokesperson tells BetaNews. "At this point in time Kit Kat U.S. is not participating". That's okay, because I look at the UK campaign and wonder: "Why now?" In 2013, Hershey joined the Nestlé-Google collaboration that put the green Android robot on Kit Kat bar wrappers when the mobile operating system of the same name shipped. That tie-in I understand.
Who am I too fuss? Based on log-ins to Google Play during the 14 days ending May 4, 2015, KitKat is the most widely-used Android version, with 39.8 percent share. Successor Lollipop is just 9.7 percent. So Android phone users in the United Kingdom, where the campaign originates, are more likely to watch their YouTube vids on KitKat while eating their Kit Kat. Since we're spouting data: According to Kantar Worldpanel, Android's smartphone sales share was 52.9 percent in Great Britain during calendar first quarter. That compares to 38.1 percent for iOS.
Nestlé claims that "consumer insight", without citing what that means, shows that "consumers are also YouTube fans". Who would have guessed? Why not Aero (my favorite), Smarties, or Yorkie?
There is a voice-search component to the campaign: "YouTube my break", which leads to various videos on the service. I got promos—granted from U.S. location—rather than the promised top-four trending vids. There's a play on words in the promo: Break, as in snapping Kit Kats, and breaking, as in popular videos.
YouTube celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. The video service opened to the public in November 2005, and Google bought the startup for $1.65 billion 11 months later. Historical note: Microsoft passed up a chance to acquire YouTube about a half-year before the search giant for just $500,000. What a frak up that was. In 2015, the service claims 1 billion users and 1 million-plus subscribers.