WONKA Launches First Branded 360-Degree Interactive Video in U.S. With New WONKA YouTube Channel

GLENDALE, Calif., July 12, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- The WONKA chocolate factory, known for producing the world's most incomparably imaginative chocolate today launches the WONKA Imagination Room, a fully immersive and interactive video experience never before seen on YouTube in the U.S. The WONKA Imagination Room video is the first 360-degree branded video ever to appear in the U.S. market on YouTube, and is the first time a U.S. marketing campaign of this online nature has ever been featured on YouTube.

"With the WONKA Imagination Room now online, consumers will finally get a rare sneak peek inside WONKA's chocolate factory," said spokesperson Tricia Bowles of Nestle USA Confections and Snacks. "The WONKA Imagination Room is a new, chocolate-centric channel on YouTube, where viewers can explore and enjoy an interactive sensory experience that is uniquely WONKA."

Using both in-video captions and 360-degree video technology, the WONKA YouTube channel experience takes visitors across four whimsical WONKA rooms, each tied to a specific WONKA chocolate – Chocolate Waterfall, Scrumdiddlyumptious, Triple Dazzle Caramel, or Fantabulous Fudge. Each WONKA-flavored room has its own unique way to make you see, hear, touch, and experience the world around you. The WONKA Imagination Room uses a combination of sensorial and technological techniques for the first time, with 360-degree videos that engage the senses and deliver an element of surprise unexpected from a YouTube experience.

"By creating 360-degree 'rooms' on YouTube, WONKA Chocolate has found a way to delight the inner child in all of us," said YouTube's Suzie Reider, national sales director of display and video. "The whimsical experience WONKA has created shows what is possible for brand advertisers on the web."

With the interactive WONKA Imagination Room, consumers can control the view and uncover different puzzles and other fun online challenges in the WONKA Imagination Room, giving the video-viewing experience an added layer of immersion and interactivity. With this technology, users not only can play and watch the videos, but actually interact and participate in the video experience at www.youtube.com/wonka.

Inspired by the story of the iconic candy maker, WONKA debuted its two new varieties - Triple Dazzle Caramel (creamy milk chocolate filled with buttery caramel and a dazzle of sea salt) and Fantabulous Fudge (velvety milk chocolate filled with decadent chocolate fudge) earlier this year. Designed to delight and tickle your taste buds, WONKA chocolates are made with natural ingredients and are available in full-sized large bars (tablets) and bags of individually wrapped pieces. The new WONKA chocolate collection is now available in stores nationwide.

About WONKA Chocolate

The two new varieties, Triple Dazzle Caramel and Fantabulous Fudge, join the WONKA chocolate collection: WONKA Scrumdiddlyumptious Chocolate Bar, made with toffee pieces, crispy cookies and crunchy peanuts wrapped in milk chocolate, and the WONKA Chocolate Waterfall Bar, with creamy white chocolate swirled in milk chocolate.

About Nestle USA

Named one of "The World's Most Admired Food Companies" in FORTUNE magazine for 14 consecutive years, Nestle provides quality brands and products that bring flavor to life every day. From nutritious meals with LEAN CUISINE® to baking traditions with NESTLE® TOLL HOUSE®, Nestle USA makes delicious, convenient, and nutritious food and beverage products that make good living possible. That's what "Nestle. Good Food, Good Life" is all about. Nestle USA, with 2010 sales of $10.4 billion, is part of Nestle S.A. in Vevey, Switzerland — the world's largest food company with a commitment to Nutrition, Health & Wellness — with 2010 sales of $105 billion. For product news and information, visit Nestleusa.com or NestleNewsroom.com.

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SOURCE Nestle USA