Cadbury turns up the volume for 'All Heroes, No Zeros'

Cadbury is tapping into cultural “icons” from Queen to Santa’s reindeers and Robin Hood to Arsenal Women Football Club in a new campaign designed to show that its Heroes is “full of bangers”.

“All Heroes, No Zeros” launches with a major new integrated campaign, created by global creative agency of record VCCP.

It aims to position Heroes as the ultimate brand for sharing, where every chocolate has earned its place and draws on the insight that while other assortment brands have obvious fan favourites, Heroes stands apart: there are no fillers, no hierarchy of favourites, no least-loved flavour left in the tub once everyone has got stuck in.

To bring this to life, the campaign celebrates some of the UK’s most iconic bands, teams, line-ups and historical figures – both real and fictional.

It leads with a series of high impact OOH, including Piccadilly Lights, and celebrates the best of the best “groups” across culture, music, history and sport by reimagining them as Heroes chocolates: from Queen, to Santa’s reindeers to Robin Hood and his Merry Men, to Arsenal Women Football Club, even characters from Pride & Prejudice to coincide with the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth.

Directed by award-winning stop-motion specialist Anthony Farquar-Smith through production company Not To Scale, in collaboration with VCCP’s global content creation studio Girl&Bear, it includes a playful 30″ spot which reimagines the inside of a tub of Cadbury Heroes as a sell-out stadium concert where every person is transformed into a Heroes chocolate.

As we fly across the crowd, Heroes versions of rock band Queen take to the stage: Freddie Mercury as a Crunchie Bits, Brian May as a Dairy Milk, Roger Taylor as a Dinky Decker, and a Dairy Milk Caramel John Deacon.

As the camera pans up and out of the stadium a Wispa fan finds it all too much, and a Creme Egg Twisted crowdsurfs before the voiceover delivers the end line: “The best groups are all heroes, no zeros – like Cadbury Heroes.”

The campaign spans across BVOD, OOH and radio and is live from today, running across the UK. Media planning and buying was led by Publicis Media UK.

Supporting activity across organic social and eCRM has been led by Elvis.

Mondelez marketing manager Emma Paxton said: “This campaign came from a simple but powerful observation – that Heroes are full of bangers. Not just one or two favourites, but a genuinely great mix, with something for everyone. It felt like a brilliant analogy for the line-ups we all know and love – where everyone’s got something special to bring.”

VCCP chief creative officers Chris Birch and Jonny Parker added: “Celebrating the best of British Heroes on Cadbury Heroes. Who wouldn’t want to see Freddie Mercury as a Crunchie Bits, Brian May as a Dairy Milk, Roger Taylor as a Dinky Decker and John Deacon as a Caramel? Heroes one and all!”