Lacta's 'From the Start' web series, created by OgilvyOne Athens in January 2017, reached 2 million viewers in Greece by turning chocolate into serialised
ARCHIVELacta Turns Chocolate Into a Five-Part Greek Love Story
Lacta's "From the Start" is a five-part branded web series created by OgilvyOne Athens and launched in Greece in January 2017, following a love-skeptic named Philip whose romantic dreams are triggered each time he eats Lacta chocolate, connecting the brand's taste directly to the emotional experience of falling in love.
The campaign marks a decisive shift in how a confectionery brand can operate within the content landscape. Rather than producing a conventional television spot or short digital film, Lacta and Ogilvy committed to a serialised narrative format, with each of the five episodes running between thirteen and eighteen minutes. The result was a fully realised love story distributed online, placing the chocolate product at the centre of Philip's emotional journey without reducing it to a prop. The campaign objective was precise, according to reporting on the work: to remind Greek consumers of Lacta's distinctive taste and anchor that sensory memory to the emotional sweetness of falling in love.
The timing was deliberate. Greece in early 2017 remained deep in an extended economic recession, a context that had suppressed consumer spending across discretionary categories including snacks and confectionery. Launching a premium branded entertainment series in that environment required both creative confidence and strategic clarity. Lacta and OgilvyOne Athens chose to lead with emotional depth rather than promotional offer, trusting that a genuinely compelling narrative would earn attention that a price-led message could not. The campaign was submitted to Clapboard.com as a content medium execution and stands as one of the most ambitious Greek ad campaign productions of its era, earning a Clapboard Score of 79 out of 100.
ARCHIVEGreece's economic recession created a structurally difficult market for confectionery brands in 2017. Consumer confidence remained fragile following years of austerity, and discretionary food categories faced sustained pressure as households tightened budgets. Chocolate consumption in Greece had declined alongside the broader economic contraction, making it harder for brands to justify emotional or lifestyle-led advertising when consumers were acutely price-sensitive.
Lacta's response was counterintuitive. Rather than competing on price or emphasising value, the brand leaned further into its long-established emotional positioning around love and romance. This positioning had been consistent for years — the underlying brand promise, as documented by ogilvy.gr, is that Lacta represents "the sweetest part of your life." The 2017 campaign did not introduce new territory; it escalated the execution into a form that no Greek chocolate brand had attempted before. By producing a serialised web series rather than a conventional ad campaign, Lacta moved the brand into the entertainment category, competing less with rival confectionery products and more with the streaming and digital content Greek audiences were already consuming.
The competitive context matters here. In the Greek and broader European confectionery market, multinational players including Nestlé and Mars hold significant presence, and smaller local brands compete on heritage and cultural resonance. According to researchandmarkets.com, Europe represented approximately forty percent of the global chocolate and sugar-confectionery market in 2017. Within that environment, Lacta's decision to invest in premium branded storytelling — a web series rather than a campaign — created a category of one in the Greek market. No direct competitor attempted comparable serialised narrative advertising in Greece at the same moment, giving Lacta a durable cultural presence that a conventional snacks ad campaign could not have achieved.
Vardis Marinakis directed "From the Start," bringing a cinematic sensibility to material that could easily have read as extended advertising. The series was written by Myrto Kontova, whose screenplay gave the central character, Philip, a coherent emotional arc across five episodes rather than a single compressed dramatic moment. This division of creative labour — a dedicated screenwriter working alongside a director with a distinct visual approach — signals the production's ambition to function as genuine drama rather than branded content in the softer sense of that term.
The creative leadership at OgilvyOne Athens was structured to support that ambition. Panos Sambrakos served as Executive Creative Director, with Theodore Tsecouras as Creative Director and George Theodorakopoulos as Associate Creative Director. Gert Tzafa held the Art Director role. On the account side, Christina Alifakioti and Theodore Politis served as Business Unit Directors at Bold Ogilvy and Mather, with Elena Vlagouli as Account Director — a depth of senior involvement consistent with a production of this scale and risk, as documented by selfstorming.com and adsoftheworld.com.
The narrative mechanics are precise in how they integrate the product. Philip's romantic dreams — the emotional core of the love story — are triggered specifically by eating Lacta chocolate. This is not incidental product placement. The chocolate is the narrative catalyst, which means every episode's emotional movement traces back to the brand without the series ever feeling like a demonstration. The five-episode structure, with individual episodes running thirteen to eighteen minutes, gave the creative team room to develop genuine tension, character, and resolution across the full arc. For a Greek ad campaign operating in a recession-constrained market, the production values and storytelling discipline represented a significant creative commitment, and the work reflects that investment at every level of execution.
Lacta's "From the Start" reached two million viewers in Greece, according to reporting by ogilvy.gr and corroborated by adsoftheworld.com. That figure acquires particular weight when set against the country's digital infrastructure at the time: Greece had approximately five million internet users in 2017, meaning the web series reached a significant proportion of the entire connected population. For a branded content campaign in the confectionery and snacks category, that level of penetration is structurally exceptional.
The performance extended beyond raw viewership. As reported by Ogilvy Gr, Lacta's YouTube channel became Greece's number one branded channel during the campaign period — a competitive outcome that placed a chocolate brand ahead of entertainment, media, and technology properties that typically dominate platform rankings. This result reflects not just reach but genuine audience engagement: viewers returned across episodes and chose to subscribe to the channel, behaviour associated with content rather than advertising.
No verified sales uplift or brand tracking data for "From the Start" is publicly available beyond the viewership and channel performance figures cited above. However, the structural effectiveness of the campaign is legible in its architecture. A five-part narrative with episodes of thirteen to eighteen minutes generates far greater dwell time with the brand than any conventional snacks advertisement. The serialised format creates habitual return behaviour, repeated brand exposure, and social discussion — outcomes that paid media alone cannot produce at the same efficiency. The campaign earned a Clapboard Score of 79 out of 100, reflecting strong creative ambition, disciplined execution, and measurable audience impact within the Greek market.
"From the Start" is a five-part branded web series created by OgilvyOne Athens for Lacta chocolate, launched in Greece in January 2017. The series follows Philip, a man skeptical about love whose romantic dreams are triggered by eating Lacta chocolate, connecting the brand's taste to the emotional experience of falling in love.
Vardis Marinakis directed the series and Myrto Kontova wrote the screenplay. The OgilvyOne Athens creative team was led by Executive Creative Director Panos Sambrakos and Creative Director Theodore Tsecouras, with the full production documented by selfstorming.com and adsoftheworld.com as a senior cross-discipline collaboration.
"From the Start" reached two million viewers in Greece, according to ogilvy.gr. Greece had approximately five million internet users at the time, making the campaign's reach exceptional for branded confectionery content. The series also made Lacta's YouTube channel Greece's number one branded channel during the campaign period.
Lacta and OgilvyOne Athens chose serialised narrative to compete with entertainment content rather than rival snacks advertising, during a period when Greece's recession had suppressed conventional consumer spending. The format extended audience dwell time, generated habitual viewing behaviour, and gave the brand cultural presence no conventional chocolate advertisement could match.
Lacta had maintained a consistent emotional positioning around love and romance for years before 2017. As documented by ogilvy.gr, the brand promise centres on Lacta representing "the sweetest part of your life." "From the Start" escalated the execution into serialised branded entertainment without introducing new positioning territory.
Lacta's "From the Start" received a Clapboard Score of 79 out of 100. The score reflects the campaign's strong creative ambition, disciplined five-episode narrative structure, and measurable audience impact, including two million viewers and the top-ranked branded YouTube channel in Greece during the campaign period.
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