Since 2012, Magnum has been committed to making its cocoa supply chain more sustainable. In this journey, we discovered that 70% of cocoa goes to waste. And for the launch of the new Magnum Vegan, the brand wanted to reflect its commitment with not only dairy-free diets, but also with a more sustainable lifestyle in a broader sense. So we decided to turn the major waste in the chocolate industry –cocoa beans husks– into a new 100% biodegradable material.

As fashion is one of our target’s pleasure points, the campaign aimed to challenge one of the most polluting industries in the world to innovate in their materials and choose more sustainable alternatives. But to make it really impactful, we needed to find the right partners.

The idea was to create the first haute couture dress made of cocoa bean husks. For that, Magnum partnered with the fashion designer Iris van Herpen, renowned for her innovative fabrics made of fully organic materials, to create a piece from the major waste in the cocoa industry – cocoa bean husks. The result: The Vegan Dress, which was presented at Paris Fashion Week by model and activist Cindy Bruna. During the event, attendants could literally try the ingredients of the dress in the shape of the new Magnum Vegan. Then, this piece travelled to London to be worn by the renowned influencer Winnie Harlow on the red carpet of the British Fashion Awards

In the development of its territory around pleasure, Magnum has partnered with different fashion designers from Alexander Wang to Jeremy Scott. And also, with fashion icons such as Bella Hadid, Iris Apfel and Miley Cyrus. For the launch of Magnum Vegan, we took the brand’s relationship with fashion –one of its target’s main passion points– to the next level. We collaborated with Iris van Herpen, the Dutch haute couture designer renowned for the creation of fully biodegradable collections. This allowed us to make a bold statement as a global brand stepping into avant-garde fashion and gain credentials to keep building Magnum’s reputation as a brand standing for a more sustainable pleasure. In this sense, we also partnered with models Cindy Bruna and Winnie Harlow, who not only share the brand’s take on pleasure and sustainability, but also helped us connect with our consumers around the world.

After many explorations, we were able to turn the grounded cocoa bean husks into a fully organic material during SLS technology that can print in 3D using organic powders. The result is a wearable material that doesn’t generate any additional waste. The jewellery-like pieces, inspired by the textures of melted chocolate, were combined with upcycled and pliseed organza to bring the Vegan Dress to life.

The Vegan Dress was launched at Paris Fashion Week, as part of Iris van Herpen’s Anniversary collection. There we offered an unmissable tasting for our consumers and specialised media during the biggest fashion event in the world: Paris Fashion Week.

After this first launch, we wanted to keep building Magnum’s sustainable reputation, so we partnered with American model Winnie Harlow. The iconic influencer wore the Vegan Dress to the British Fashion

"The Vegan Dress" reached over 2.8 billion people thanks to more than 460 articles in mass media outlets such as DailyMail and Independent, as well as fashion, art, and veganism-focused media, such as Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Paper, Elle and VegNews. This way, the campaign achieved an earned media equal to an investment of €4.1 millions.

It was also reviewed by multiple content creators on TikTok, YouTube and Instagram who helped us keep the conversation going. The Vegan Dress was also reviewed by fashionistas on YouTube, Twitch, Instagram and other social platforms, achieving an engagement rate of 5.5%. But most importantly, this campaign had a direct impact on pleasure seekers decision-making, raising the sales of Magnum’s vegan editions up to 12%.