Cadburys

Cadburys Social Media Success Story (Part 1)

I have to admit to really liking Cadbury’s and marketing campaigns of recent years. Those guys have grasped what marketing is all about, imagination, creativity and being different from the rest. Their marketing efforts since 2007 have been consistently outstanding, providing a benchmark for others to follow, be it the ‘Glass and a Half Full’ productions, their Wispa campaigns or this years Creme Egg efforts.

Back in 2006 the firm announced it was to continue its decade long sponsorship of Coronation Street, the top rated UK television ’soap’ for a further two years. Later that same year a samonella contamination resulted in the recall of almost 1 million chocolate bars. This also forced the company to pull all sponsorship and advertising for two months. Before the years end Cadburys had decided to terminate all sponsorship of ‘the Street’.

The value of the deal (£5 million per year) made it the highest for any TV show outside of the USA. The sponsorship also enjoyed the highest spontaneous  recall rates of any TV sponsoship (according to this Thinkbox 2005 case study).

Commenting on it to the Guardian at the time a spokesperson said the soap had been great for an “umbrella sponosrship strategy but we have recognised that our different brands need separate marketing strategies, you can’t just use a catch-all”.

No doubt such a health scare earlier in the year probably had an influence on the decision to drop its high profile sponsoship. However the Cadbury image was taking a battering on several fronts. The cost of dealing with the salmonella outbreak was estimated at up to £30 million due to the recall of potentially contaminated products, improving production facilities and a fine of £1 million from the Food Standards Authority over the incident. During this period Cadbury also produced Easter Eggs containing traces of nuts without any nut allergy warning, cancelled a £5 million Trident chewing gum campaign after it was deemed offensive, closed a historic Boston cemetary for a sales promotion treasure hunt, announced 7,500 redundancies, while a leaked memo revealed most of these jobs would be moving to Poland. Not good times for the confectionary giant.

The Cadbury brand had taken a hammering and the firm had to rebuild their image. Taking the firms marketing strategy in a new direction was a critical step in that process.

In the next post I’ll trace the firms relationship with social media, from early ‘toe in the water’ efforts right up to their full embrace of the mediums potential.

Part Two of the series is available here

Part Three of the series is available here

Part Four of the series is available here

Related posts:

1. Cadburys Social Media Success Story (Part 2)
2. Cadburys Social Media Success Story (Part 4)
3. Cadbury’s Social Media Success Story (Part 3)
4. 10 key Elements of a Social Media Strategy
5. The Value of Social Media

© 2009 LAB: Luke Abbotts Blog.