Tony’s Chocolonely wins Immediate's sustainable advertising competition, securing a £200,000 campaign

Published: 11 Sept 2025

Immediate, home to trusted brands people love, today announces that Tony’s Chocolonely has been selected as the winner of its inaugural sustainable advertising competition. 

Launched to mark World Environment Day, the competition was open to any advertiser making tangible progress on environmental, social and governance (ESG) goals to make a real difference, to win a digital advertising campaign worth £200,000, running across Immediate’s marketing-leading brands, including Radio Times, Good Food and BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine. 

Tony’s Chocolonely was crowned winner with the judging panel praising its clear, credible, and impactful ESG work. Chocolate manufacturer Tony’s Chocolonely's mission is to end exploitation in the cocoa industry, fighting against forced labour, child labour, and deforestation. 

The brand’s entry highlighted the "bitter truth" of the cocoa industry’s use of child labour and contribution to deforestation. It presented its "sweet solution" through five Sourcing Principles, which include paying higher prices, ensuring 100% traceability, and improving cocoa quality and yields. 

The advertising campaign will be created by Imagine, Immediate's award-winning content studio, running across Immediate’s premium digital platforms. Its performance will be tracked using IMClear, Immediate's proprietary tool for measuring advertising effectiveness against ESG metrics. 

The expert judges included Immediate’s Sustainability lead Michelle Whitehead, Good Food’s Managing Editor Lulu Grimes, BBC Gardeners’ World Content Director, Kevin Smith and Matt Bourn, Director of Communications at the Advertising Association (AA). 

Michelle Whitehead, Immediate’s Sustainability Lead, said: "We were so delighted by the response to this competition with so many brands striving to make a tangible difference. Tony’s Chocolonely’s open-source approach facilitates brands like Waitrose, Aldi, and Ben & Jerry’s to source using its tried-and-tested methods proves that real change is about lifting everyone, not just leading alone. Immediate wants to help that message travel further." 

Kevin Smith, Content Director, BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine, added: "Tony’s Chocolonely impressed me hugely as the brand is built on foundations designed to bring about positive change, re-shaping a huge industry. It hasn’t adapted to be better; it exists to make a difference. Tony’s practices making a meaningful difference on multiple fronts, from working conditions at source to reducing deforestation.” 

According to Nicola Matthews, Tony’s Chocolonely UKI Head of Marketing: “As a challenger brand our paid media budgets are tiny compared to our competitors so we’re so grateful to Immediate for giving us this opportunity, especially with Less Healthy Food (LHF) regulations round the corner. It will help us reach even more people with our tasty chocolate and vision to end exploitation in cocoa.” 

IMClear is Immediate’s pioneering proprietary tool for measuring advertising effectiveness against ESG metrics and supporting more sustainable media investment. 

Immediate as a company has committed to net zero by 2045, with a target of reducing emissions by 30% by 2030. 

Ends 

About Immediate  

Immediate is the home to trusted brands people love, with more than 700 people based in London, Bristol, Nottingham and Manchester.        We own and operate some of the best-loved brands in the UK and are the market leader in the majority of sectors we operate in, including food, gardening and children’s publishing. Our brands include Radio Times, Good Food, BBC History Magazine, BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine, olive, Girl Talk, and MadeForMums. We also publish children’s titles for LEGO and Disney, CBeebies portfolio under license from BBC Studios and BBC Top Gear on behalf of BBC Studios.

About Tony’s Chocolonely

Tony’s Chocolonely leads by example, building direct, long-term relationships with cocoa farmers in Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire, paying them a higher price and working together to solve the underlying causes of cocoa's 3 biggest issues – forced labour, child labour and deforestation.

Tony’s Chocolonely wants to inspire the industry as a whole to end exploitation in the cocoa industry. They believe that being a better business should be the norm, not the exception. Tony's Chocolonely is a B-Corp and Fairtrade-certified.