Android KitKat is Google’s new operating system
The Android KitKat operating system from Google should be a tasty alternative to the predicted latest version of Key Lime Pie.
And in a clever marketing move, Google are linking-up with chocolate manufacturer Nestle to brand more than 50 million KitKats with the Android logo.
Industry pundits had predicted that the 4.4 version of the OS would be Key Lime Pie but Google has obviously got a taste for the chocolate which we presume will be marketed with the slogan, Take a Break, Take an Android KitKat. It doesn’t quite trip off the tongue as easily as Jelly Bean but is more appetising to UK consumers than the US Key Lime Pie which is an unusual mouthful in GB.
Android KitKat will have universal appeal
Nestle, the baby-milk-to-dog-food manufacturer, which has a big market share of the sweet snack sort, is the type of household name that Google finds attractive in the UK. Android KitKat bars are likely to find their way into lunchboxes of all age ranges and will bring both Android KitKat and Google into pretty much every home.
No money changes hands for the Android KitKat deal, except at the till. The link-up was Google’s idea because, they told the BBC, they wanted to do something ‘fun and unexpected’.
When Google says that Android is now being used on more than a billion smartphones then there’s obviously a first class marketing opportunity for Nestle too, particularly if the new Android KitKats are exported to countries where they don’t have a big market at the moment. The initial rollout will be to the UK, US, Brazil, India, Japan and Russia.
The deal was done after Google coders got their hands on some KitKats to while away the late night hours. A bright spark took a shine to the name and before you could say “Take a Break – Take a KitKat” Google were surfing the internet to find out who owned the brand and the rest is history. It took just 24 hours to shake hands on the deal with Nestle.
Top secret project had Android Kitkat mascot
The project was top secret for weeks and Google employees were only put in the picture when an Android mascot made out of KitKats went on show at the firm’s California site. It isn’t recorded if the staff tucked in, or how Nestle stopped the mascot melting in the sweltering Mountain View sun.
While it’s unlikely that Google will want to go further with other Nestle products – Purina dog food doesn’t sound like a winner to us, and neither do Cheerios – Google has been branding its Android releases after types of treat. Other releases have been called Cupcake, Donut, Eclair, Gingerbread, Ice Cream Sandwich and Jelly Bean.
Android KitKat is likely to fulfil the appetite for Google’s new operating system and it will be a very good marketing opportunity for Nestle too.
After Android KitKat we could see Android Smarties. We’ll have a fiver on that one
