Diary

Love Hearts - the missing link to marketing success?

By Attracta Mooney

British family business Swizzels Matlow has been tempting the young and not-so-young with their sweet treats for more than 80 years, thanks to their range of candies including New Refreshers, Drumstick Lollies and Rainbow Drops.

But perhaps its most iconic brand is Love Hearts – the sugary fruit-flavoured snacks that feature romance-related messages, such as For Ever, Can We Do A Proper Kiss and Be My Love, on the tablet-shaped sweets.

Now the Derbyshire-based sweet maker, which is the UK’s largest family-owned independent sugar confectionery business, has teamed up with well-known carmaker Honda for a retro-inspired marketing campaign that will run until Valentine’s Day.

Love Hearts, complete with messages including Say Yes, will feature on ads to sell the Japanese car giant’s Jazz, CR-V and Insight models.

Rolls of the sweets are also being sent to car showrooms, but this shouldn’t restrict regular customer supply – an impressive 2.75 billion Love Hearts are produced every year. That’s enough to stretch around the world one and a half times.

Although Love Hearts were first created in 1954, Swizzels Matlow can trace its roots further back. Maurice and Alfred Matlow established Matlow Brothers in 1928 and later merged with rival factory owner David Dee – the Matlow and Dee families still own the business. 

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