As I suggested in my earlier post ‘Internet Killed the TV Star‘, 30-second vignettes no longer do anything for people; and herein lies the point: then, do something for people.
We have to recognise that the consumer is no longer naive. The savvy consumer of today wants to be educated, entertained and engaged.
I will share another case study: Cadbury Chocolate.
A 30-second television commercial like this used to occupy a substantial part of the annual marketing investment, except that in the peer-to-peer (P2P) age we live in today, the return of investment of a rather unilateral communication message like this is probably going to be dismal.
The commercial probably wanted to tell us something; now, wouldn’t it be nice if we listened?
Cadbury changed tack and decided to develop a bilateral relationship with the consumer instead. It tried to educate, entertain and engage the consumer, starting with this commercial in 2007.
With this next commercial, Cadbury really gained traction and recognition. It seemed to finally understand the importance of a ‘brand-consumer’ conversation and it ensured that all consumer touch-points were accounted for, when delivering the communication message.
Through celebrity-led spoofs, parodies and spin-offs, Cadbury was able to extend the PR mileage of the initial campaign – multiple-fold.
When Cadbury conducted a post-campaign survey, it found out that 80% of all viewers who saw the commercial registered positive feedback; out of that, 40% appreciated that Cadbury was trying to entertain; 34% appreciated that Cadbury was trying to do something different; and 31% felt it was great that Cadbury was trying to do something other than traditional advertising.
Other than television, the commercial was released virally on the internet. The list of recipients multiplied when the YouTube link was forwarded via email, mobile, tweets, statuses, blog posts, etc.
Such user-driven viral activities increased the feel-good factor with the brand. The media-savvy population of today tends to be cynical about advertising, when the message is delivered by the brand but not when it is delivered by their own friends.
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