Toblerone is no stranger to reinvention, but its latest transformation didn’t arrive via a new flavour or marketing gimmick.
Instead, it came through a strategic partnership that fused fashion, prestige media and a strong sense of identity to reset perceptions.
At the heart of that evolution was News Corp Australia’s Total News Experience, and a bold campaign that turned a triangular chocolate bar into a style icon.
This was the creative force behind the ‘Never Square’ platform, a Vogue-led collaboration that saw Toblerone repositioned as a luxury treat, with substance, style and serious retail uplift to show for it.
Premium storytelling meets precision media
The Total News Experience is News Corp Australia’s data-powered media ecosystem, designed to deliver smarter, more effective outcomes by blending Paid, Owned and Earned media.
It’s where content creation meets AI-enhanced targeting, where storytelling collides with strategy, and where brands get to show up in culture, not just alongside it.
With powerhouse agencies like Medium Rare, Storyation, Visual Domain and Suddenly in its corner, the Total News Experience offers a media and marketing playground that’s both premium and performance-driven.
In the Toblerone campaign, that meant integrating rich storytelling, dynamic video, editorial credibility and a big brand moment via Vogue American Express Fashion’s Night Out.
A timely launch ahead of the brand’s new praline range, it was a case of premium meeting premium, and it worked.
Never Square: from concept to cultural moment
As Ari Petropoulos, News Corp Australia’s Head of Client Partnerships, VIC Consortium Agencies, explains, the ambition was clear from the beginning.
“Toblerone’s goal was to transition from an airport brand to a more premium icon. They were launching this new ethos, ‘Never Square’, and we knew we had to bring that to life in a way that felt authentic and elevated.”
The original brief came from Sydney’s Alexia Antonis Group Director, Content & Brand Partnerships at Wavemaker with input from Melbourne-based Head of Planning Steve Thornton and Business Manager, Michelle Gothelf. “They wanted to know how we could position Toblerone in luxury. Alexia was instrumental. She saw the potential of Vogue, and asked us what we could create or own for them.”
News Australia responded with the Never Square Designer Awards, a campaign celebrating unconventional creativity through Australian fashion designers which Anne Brooke, Senior Brand Manager at Toblerone absolutely loved.
“It was a one-pager idea at first,” said Petropoulos. “But that idea had legs. It grew into an ecosystem.”
How fashion powered confectionery and why it worked
The campaign paired Toblerone with three designers, Alvie Chung, Erik Yvon and James Noble, across video, social, longform and editorial executions in August and September.
It culminated in a high-profile presence at Vogue American Express Fashion’s Night Out in October, where Yvon was crowned the first winner of the Never Square Designer Award.
His prize? Not just prestige. Yvon’s designs were used on limited-edition Toblerone packaging, stocked exclusively in David Jones effectively taking a luxury-inspired idea all the way through to shelf.
“They had cost pressures,” said Petropoulos. “The premium chocolate category is growing fast, but with that comes fierce competition. So the story we told had to justify the price emotionally.”
By tying into the codes of luxury, via Vogue’s cachet, fashion’s creativity, and a tactile in-store experience, Toblerone didn’t just get attention. It got conversion.
A sweet result: Toblerone’s premium push hits home
The campaign didn’t just capture imaginations, it moved the needle. Kantar brand lift results revealed that Toblerone’s ‘Never Square’ concept resonated particularly well with women aged 25–49, helping the chocolate brand move out of the airport lounge and into premium territory.
Two-thirds of surveyed women agreed that Toblerone is “original and never square,” and a remarkable 58 percent called it the most unconventional chocolate on the market.
But perhaps most telling of the campaign’s effectiveness: Toblerone’s brand equity jumped by 19 percent, from 36 percent in the control group to 42 percent among those exposed to the campaign.
The future of total experience media
What set this campaign apart wasn’t just the creative or the context, it was the collaboration. Petropoulos credits that shared ambition and strategic openness as the key to unlocking something bigger.
“This is the perfect way to work. Points of collaboration, support and people leaning in, from integration specialists to planners, that’s how media works harder.”
For Toblerone, this was about more than a seasonal spike. It was a marker of what’s possible when media is treated not as a buy, but as a brand experience.
With Frontiers 2025 on the horizon, the Toblerone case is a vivid reminder of how News Corp Australia’s Total News Experience isn’t just media, it’s momentum.