Fat men with weird facial hair bestowing gifts on total strangers is, of course, a tradition at this time of year.
So it can’t have been a total surprise to retro confectionery supplier A Quarter Of when they got a plug from roly-poly Take That wordsmith Gary Barlow, reincarnated this year in the less cuddly and more shouty form of talent show adjudicator.
Barlow played kingmaker for A Quarter Of by pointing his legion of Twitter followers – very nearly a million of them – in the direction of the sweet company’s website the day before the final of The X Factor, a television show about karaoke singers that apparently is popular with the younger folk.
A Quarter Of reckons that 15,000 punter logged on within a few moments of the sweet-themed tweet – presumably quite a few more than they usually get.
Incidentally, Saturday’s edition of The Grocer will feature a look at the mixed fortunes brands like Yeo Valley and Tic Tacs have had with their X Factor tie-ins.
Meanwhile, Barlow’s gift keeps on giving. The Mirror and the Metro have covered the story, and now so has Daily Bread (the most telling endorsement of all).
Still, while we’re happy to give A Quarter Of a pat on the back, we’re not going to name the internet service provider that sent us a press release about how well they’d coped with the surge in traffic to its site.
A festive gift is one thing, but we’re not a charity. Merry Christmas.
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