Cadburys Social Media Success Story (Part 2)

The first post outlined how Cadburys arrived at their decision to integrate social media into their marketing strategy. This next part will give an overview of their progress since then and how social media has been a success for the Cadburys brand.

The Cadbury strategy thus far has had three different approachs;

– ‘Glass and A Half Full Productions’ have been quirky and used to promote the Dairy Milk line

– Nostalgia and social networks have been a key component of the Wispa strategy

– For the Creme Egg brand, aimed at a younger audience, Social Media has been fully embraced to produce an absorbing and inventive approch to marketing.

Glass and A Half Full Productions (2007 – Present)

Three television adverts have been produced under this banner, namely the award winning Gorilla, followed by Trucksand the most recent Eyebrows ad.

Gorilla has been a massive hit on Youtube clocking up over 5 million hits in its first year alone. It also spawned hundreds of remixes uploaded to the video website by viewers, one of which featured Bonnie Tylers ‘Total Eclipse Of The Heart’ which was subsequently remade by agncy Fallon and broadcast on TV. Polling agency Yougov noted that this advert reveresed the decline in public opinion of the Cadbury brand. The company also reported sales increasing by 9% compared to the same period 12 months previous (in 2006).

Queen provided the Soundtrack to Trucks, the advert that had the impossible task of topping its predecessor, certainly a tough act to follow. While trucks looked more expensive it didnt quiet grasp the imagination of the public. Due perhaps to the massive interest in Gorilla on Youtube, Trucks made its debut on the video website a full 24 hours before its first television broadcast. A subsequent advert with Bon Jovi’s track ‘Living On A Prayer’ was also released.

For the third advert in the series Cadbury returned to their roots. Eyebrows featured two kids, another great retro soundtrack and a bizarre eyebrow dance. The advert had much in common with Gorilla, a simple yet creative idea that did once again grab the publics attention. Within three weeks the advert was viewed over 4 million times on Youtube, that was twice as many as Gorilla at the same stage of that campaign. Cadburys have also launched Jivebrow ’09, a competition to discover the 18% of British people who are eyebrow ambidextrous.

The three adverts have worked due to a number of factors, a certain amount of nostaliga is present as each advert has featured a song that is at least twenty years old. The two most successful adverts have demonstrated creativity wins out over budget. While high profile telvision premier’s (all debuted during different versions of Big Brother) have helped to generate ‘buzz’ and driven viewers to Youtube to view the adverts again. It is the social media video website that has been instrumental in prolonging the life span of each advert and in the case of Gorrilla produced a second version of the ad for television. Each online view for the brand is free, while the success of Gorrilla and Eyebrows has also proved to be a publicity hit for the firm generating tons of free online and offline PR, to the extent that consumers, the media and the advertising industry eagerly await the next advertisement in the series.