The search continues...

The adverts were the main part of the campaign, but there was also a website: Rowntrees.co.uk.

According to an article by campaignlive.co.uk written in 2000:

The site features a collection of games linked together by a series of animated sequences, which includes cartoon-style characters from the TV campaign.

Another article says "The site includes flash and shockwave stories and games."

Thanks to the magic of the Wayback Machine, we can glimpse the Rowntree website from back then. Here's what Rowntrees.co.uk looked like in November 2000:

There are six images on the webpage. You'd think they would be links to games, but no: they're just static images.

They roughly follow the story in the television adverts. The first image is the treehouse from the first advert:

The second image seems to be the fall through the treehouse's trapdoor, again from the first advert:

The third image is of some weird bug that never featured in the TV adverts:

The fourth image is of a flying green elephant. Wait a minute – I don't remember that from the adverts! The website says that his name is "Tootun" and that he has "twin intensifier lasers".

The fifth image is of the door to the Sorcerer's house from the second advert:

The final image never loads, unfortunately. It's called "scr6.gif" which isn't of any help.

The Wayback Machine made several more copies of Rowntrees.co.uk from back then, but Rowntree didn't update their site much. For example, here's the website again, but this time in December 2003, three years later:

So you can see that not much changed in three years.

There is an image of a cool rainbow whirlpool though:

The description for the latest game (image missing) says, "With the help of the enigmatic Gunc, can you find and navigate the hazardous never-ending stairway?" Man, these games sound cool. I wish there was still a way to play them. I imagine they were atmospheric like the beautiful Bionicle flash games. I asked my brother if he remembers the Rowntrees flash games and he just says "they were crap".

Play button

Clicking on the "Click to Play" button takes you to this page:

That inviting "Play" button doesn't work anymore, unfortunately, because Wayback Machine didn't save any of the games. Clicking on the Play button leads here:

You can click on the Register button, however, which leads here:

You could choose from one of four cool characters:

The characters seem to be:

• The token girl. (It's a well-known fact that every group in the 80s and 90s only had one girl - Smurfette in the Smurfs, Andy in The Goonies, Beverley Marsh in It, Amy Rose in Sonic the Hedgehog, Bo Peep in Toy Story, etc. She was known as "the girl one". Back then there was a shortage of girls and women, you see. Men outnumbered women 10 to 1.) The girl one here has a ludicrously large afro. Though it could be a cat.
• The token black guy. Ditto, see above.
• A sheet of torn paper that looks vaguely like a monster that eats people
• A guy who looks like his name is Rad McCool

I know Kit was looking Rowntree but I've never heard any of these kids. Were these kids searching for the Rowntree too? If so, did they ever met up with Kit and all work together or was it a bit like The Hunger Games where they have to kill each other because only one person is allowed to find the Rowntree? So many unanswered questions.

You could even win prizes by playing the games. Do I want to win prizes? Of course I do!

The prize was "a Rowntree's backpack containing Rowntree's products." according to the terms and conditions. "The person who is top of the leader board for each game will win a prize when the competition closes."

Page source

By viewing the page source, I can see that the website was made by a company called Pilot Interactive.

<!--   (Pi) Pilot Interactive / New Media Design Agency / Leeds / UK / 0113 229 3386   -->
<!--   Client: Nestle  -->
<!--   www.pilotinteractive.co.uk  -->
<!--   info@pilotinteractive.co.uk  -->

Actually I already knew this thanks to an article from 2000 by campaignlive.co.uk. The article says:

Online activity was developed by Nestle Rowntree roster agency, Pilot Interactive. Pilot has previously developed sites for Nestle’s Willy Wonka and After Eight brands.

I can't find Pilot Interactive any more and their website (https://www.pilotinteractive.co.uk/) no longer works.

According to an article from 2002, the web campaign earned Pilot Interactive "Best Online Advertisement, Campaign or Viral Email" at the Roses Advertising Awards 2002, whatever the fuck that is.