The confectionery category has taken fifth place in branded activity this week, ahead of soft drinks and ­frozen.

In 2006, confectionery came in ninth place overall with the top-five brands made up of Cadbury with 39%, Mars with 30%, Nestlé with 22% and Lindt and Terry's with 5% each.

This year to date, the top three remain the same: Cadbury recorded 30%, Mars had 28% and Nestlé had 27%. Promotional activity by Bassetts has put the brand in fourth place with 8% and Lindt remains in the top five with 7% of promotional offers.

In the confectionery category this week, retailers and manufacturers have focused f­eatured space promotional offers on boxed and block chocolates.

Mars leads the category with 38% of activity and has offers in four out of the five retailers. The preferred mechanic for Mars is 'x for y', which accounts for 63% of offers, with 'save' being used for the remaining 30%.

Nestlé's promotional activity was extended across all five retailers and accounted for 27% of the total offers. A range of mechanics was used, including buy-one-get-one-free in Morrisons, x for y in Asda and Sainsbury's, save in Somerfield and special purchase/introductory offers in Tesco.

The launch of Nestlé's Heaven chocolate bar range in Tesco was recorded by the Promotrack team as the most prominent and well-stocked display for this category.

Cadbury, with 25% of total space, focused its offers around Roses 480g and Dairy Milk 250g bars. A range of mechanics was used and promotions were ­recorded in four of the five retailers.

The Lindt Gold Bunny and Lindor chocolates helped put the brand into fourth place with 6% of activity in the category. The favoured mechanic was x for y and offers were available in Asda and Sainsbury's.

In fifth place was Green & Blacks, which had displays in Sainsbury's. The preferred mechanics were save and extra free.