Why Cadbury Is 'Breaking' Its Own Ads

In a stunt that sounds like it's straight out of Charlie & The Chocolate Factory, U.K. brand Cadbury has launched two mystery chocolate bars, giving sweet-toothed detectives a chance to win an almost $6,000 (5,000 pound) mystery prize if they're able to guess the flavors. To promote the competition, the Mondelez-owned brand has literally "broken" its own advertising, with help from longtime agency VCCP. The creative features disruptive, intentionally malfunctioning media placements. Think crinkled bus stop ads, "glitchy" digital posters and Instagram posts that don’t seem to fully load. "Cadbury Mystery Bars" will run in the U.K. until September across out of home (OOH), online and social supported by a digital audio campaign with Spotify. All media has been planned and executed by Carat. Benazir Barlet-Batada, Cadbury's senior marketing director said the playful work was part of Cadbury's desire to become a more "participative" brand and engage 18 to 34-year-olds. Cadbury already has form in encouraging consumers to participate in the creative and production process. Every year since 2019, it has asked the British public to invent their own Dairy Milk bar via its "Cadbury Inventor" platform. People are invited to select their own combination from a huge list of ingredients, explaining what inspired their creation. Three finalists then got to see their product hit shelves. On average, 120,000 people submit 90,000 possible flavors each year. The most recent winner (Crunch Honeycomb) was created by a 19-year-old student. For Barlet-Batada this success has encouraged Cadbury to explore more ways of engaging younger millennial and Gen-Zers, leading to mystery bars promotion. "We've learned that younger generations love to participate in culture, they don't just want to be exposed to it. So this is where the flavor activation idea came from. The execution then brings the mystery to life. We're going to dial up the anticipation and build up a deep sense of intrigue," she explained. Hitting the sweet spot on social Cadbury joins a growing throng of brands looking to open a two-way, more playful dialogue with consumers. Another includes Spotify, which last week snapped up Wordle-inspired music game Heardle to make music discoverability more interactive for listeners.Barlet-Batada said this participation is what younger audiences expect. "[They want to] participate and shape brands... it's quite exciting to go down this track, it's almost like a new way of marketing for us." Fans who follow Cadbury’s social channels, or those subscribe to the chocolate brand’s emailing list will also receive clues as to possible flavors for the products before they're unwrapped in October 2022. Barlet-Batada said social platforms will form a key part of the media plan for "Cadbury Mystery Bars". "We know social really helps build our brands and drives commercial results. We're using the evidence [we already have] and taking it further," she said. While "mass" channels like Facebook and Instagram will be important to reach young adults, TikTok will also be key as it "over-indexes" for this demographic. From its "Cadbury Inventor" TikTok campaign last year, the marketer noted significant brand results, with ad recall lifted 17.9%, awareness rising 3.7% and purchase intent lifting 4.4%. Familiarity increased by 2.9%. Success for this campaign will be largely measured on the same metrics, with brand love, health and penetration being top of mind for Barlet-Batada. The ads noted one of the "best ever" test results for Cadbury in terms of brand equity. To Combat Loneliness, Cadbury Replaces Dairy Milk Branding With Stories From the Elderly

Creative Advertising

Why Cadbury Is 'Breaking' Its Own Ads

Chocolate maker says 'glitchy' creative is part of a bigger play to become a more 'participative' brand

Rebecca Stewart

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Rebecca Stewart