Dive Brief:
- Mondelez-owned Cadbury is inviting consumers in the U.K. and Ireland to "go madbury" and invent a new flavor of Cadbury Dairy Milk, according to a report at The Takeout.
- Fans can create their chocolate bars by choosing up to three of the flavors listed on Cadbury’s Inventor site, naming their bar and submitting it. More than 90,000 combinations are possible. The public will vote on the top three bars, and finalists will be invited to the Cadbury headquarters in Birmingham, England. The three bars will be available for a limited time, with the winning bar available for a year. The winning creator will get a year’s supply of the signature bar.
- To introduce the campaign, Cadbury released a YouTube video offering a glimpse inside different apartments in the same building and showing residents creating chocolate concoctions by mixing in fruit, sprinkles, popcorn and other items. A voice-over at the end explains how the campaign works.
Dive Insight:
Cadbury’s whimsical video and chocolate challenge reminiscent of "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" will likely be a hit in the chocolate-crazed U.K., and help the iconic brand drive digital engagement and sales. People in Britain consumed more chocolate than any other country in 2017, with the average resident eating 8.4 kilograms, according to data from Mintel Global New Products Database cited by The Independent. The YouTube video had racked up nearly 815,000 views as of press time.
Crowd-sourcing new flavor ideas is a popular marketing trend that consumers enjoy because they get to share their ideas with their favorite brands and feel like they are being heard. The contests also usually boost social media traffic for brands and drive brand awareness and sales. For several years, PepsiCo’s Frito-Lay brand has asked consumers to suggest new chip flavors, as part of the "Do Us a Flavor" campaign. The limited-run flavors were released, and people got to vote for their favorites. The 2017 campaign came with a $1 million prize for the winner.
Another Mondelez brand, Oreo, brought back the #MyOreoCreation campaign this year, asking fans to submit their ideas for new cookie varieties. The campaign drew hundreds of thousands of entries, and the brand unveiled three limited-time flavors in May — Cherry Cola, Kettle Corn and Piña Colada — selected from the entries. Fans could then vote for their favorites on social media.
The latest campaign is part of Cadbury’s marketing overhaul that the brand announced in January, according to The Drum. The chocolate brand is playing up its heritage and taking a more down-to-earth approach that centers around generosity. The company also added the tagline, "There’s a glass and a half in every one," to its Dairy Milk marketing, referencing the brand's traditional recipe, which included a specific amount a milk per bar.
