Case Studies
Cadbury Dairy Milk Chocolate – Spreading joy around the World
Whilst Cadbury Dairy Milk had enjoyed market leader status in its primary territories around the World, it was losing share to other players and relevance among younger consumers. The ‘chocolate I want to eat the most’was ebbing and the precious brand equity eroding.
Agency and Brand Team were committed to reinforcing the enjoyment of the CDM taste head-on; i.e. the irrepressible joy, you cannot help but let-out, when you eat Dairy Milk.
However, the challenge creatively was ‘how do you exhibit this joy in such a way that is not clichéd, culturally inappropriate or outrageously incredible for a chocolate bar? And how did these measures differ across the contrasting markets?
Out Of The Box came-up with the idea of developing a series of ‘Joybanks’; video montages of diverse expressions of joy taken from popular culture – films, youtube clips, music videos. They ranged from the slapstick to the subtle, the melodic to the mad and the extravert to the extraneous.
We used this in qual. research to find the sweet spot for the expression of joy that was pertinent to CDM and the local culture.
The learning is so evident in the final films for CDM’s ‘Free the Joy’, finessing the Global equity to optimise the resonance on a local level.
In UK, for example, the joy released by 'Keith', the office manager in the launch spot, is fighting against the typically-British convention and repression. The Triplet embryos in the Mother’s womb in the South African execution enact a soulful joy that would have been too pedestrian for a nation who’s soul is so expressive, had they been already born. Whilst in India, given the magnitude of the Brand, we had to travel to another planet to see how CDM could release the joy for the first time on an innocent novice, in a typically-Indian OTT story-telling manner.
It’s a great example of how the same essential brand equity can be executed in a bespoke, culturally-relevant way, without losing any of the Brand’s DNA
The campaign shifted the right metrics in each market beyond expectations and, with the taste credentials re-established, paved the way for the current Glass and a Half of Generosity campaign running in the same regions.
Yeo Valley Organic – Taking the worthy out of Organic
Our research at the time showed Yeo Valley Organic Yogurt was enjoyed passionately by a loyal following, but attracting new, younger consumers was becoming challenging, since there was scepticism as to whether paying a 50% premium over Muller Yogurts was justifiable – especially given the merely rational persuasion of ‘better taste’ or ‘better for the environment’.
We identified the opportunity to debunk the worthy, aloof image or Organic produce, that was exclusive and judgemental, by adopting a more irreverent, self-deprecating attitude.
BBH developed the ‘Yeo Harmony’ creative brief but it was our research that strongly recommended ditching other variants of ‘harmony’ and dedicating the big idea entirely around the singing young farmers and parodying the boyband/X-Factor cliché.
Key was ensuring the organic message was not jettisoned, rather that it was cleverly sewn into the lyrics and Brand World.
The campaign was hugely successful commercially but also in the way it injected a youthful energy and relevance into the brand, without diluting the premium positioning or alienating its loyal customer base.
So much so, the ad was followed-up with a successor the following year with an even greater incremental business effect
Peperami – Unleashing the Beast; Britain’s Longest-running TV Ad Campaign ever
This is an old case study from 1994 but the campaign is still running 25 x years later, so it’s worth understanding the roots of this infamous creative idea.
The thinking that led to Britain’s longest-running TV campaign was borne out of a solid product truth – 100% meat – and liberating exploration of how best to manifest the brand’s anarchic personality
Back in 1992, sales were stagnant, still recovering from a national delisting post-salmonella scare!
The inculmbent creative strategy merely celebrated the strength of the distinctive meaty flavour; e.g. comparing them to meat-flavoured crisps.
A deep-dive into the consumer relationship with Peperami revealed a much more conspiratorial and mischievous brand connection; as if kids were eating Peperami behind bike sheds, whilst mums were naively putting something satisfying in their lunchboxes. The 100% meat wasn’t just the product, it was emerging through the personality too.
Unilever had no expertise, at that time, in snack brand management – so the challenge was to find a way to harness this maverick personality that kids see in the brand, without losing the gatekeepers, the mums.
To do both due diligence and find the creative spot, we devised a grid with 4 x distinct creative propositions ranging from the more anarchic to the more primal, the cruder to the smarter. And creative teams developed over 50 x different adcepts, designed to bring these territories to life.
Two of these adcepts, in our research, really defined the creative strategy that still resonates today. The unrestrainable, animalistic power of the taste invading your senses – even the metallic pack cannot contain it.
Unleash a Beast became the creative proposition, which led directly to the birth of the Peperamic character; roguish, crude and mischievously charming.
The initial TV launch campaign in 1994 was staggeringly successful, winning a Gold IPA Ad Effectiveness Award; sales +75%, penetration +40%, demise of Own Label and a Millward Brown Awareness Index of 40 (norm of 4!)
Since then, over 40 x TVCs have been produced and the Mr Peperami is still in rude health today
