VCCP lands IPA Effectiveness grand prix for Cadbury

VCCP has scooped one of the advertising industry’s top accolades, landing the IPA Effectiveness Awards grand prix for rebuilding Cadbury’s brand and increasing annual revenue by £261m through its “Glass & a half” campaign.

After a turbulent few years for the Mondelēz brand, during which 2 million British households had stopped buying Cadbury Dairy Milk, VCCP transformed the brand by rediscovering its intrinsic purpose – that of generosity. This was born of both the core feature of the product – that it “generously” contains a glass and a half of milk – and the roots of the organisation, founded on Quaker values.

By channelling this purpose, Cadbury oriented strategy and comms activity around the belief that there is a generous instinct within all of us and a wider purpose to inspire more generosity in the world.

In short, by showing ‘there’s a glass and a half in everyone’. The paper outlines that, “unlike ‘bolted-on’ versions of purpose sometimes deployed in marketing, this approach was not born of a contemporary issue, nor made with a ‘with us or against us’ stance on a divisive societal issue”.

Instead, it explains, Cadbury set out to unite people, and in doing so, demonstrated how purpose that is overtly connected to brand and product can drive affinity, equity and sales.

To bring this strategy to life, the campaign which launched in 2018, focused on two primary areas, storytelling and “storydoing”.

Storytelling involved creating emotionally engaging stories of everyday Britons using Cadbury Dairy Milk to demonstrate generosity to each other, including ‘Mum’s birthday’; ‘Fence’ and ‘Bus’.

Meanwhile, the “storydoing” strategy centred on developing emotionally engaging Cadbury initiatives at commercially significant times that inspire consumers to show generosity to each other.

These initiatives include the Cadbury Worldwide Hide – a digital platform where people could virtually hide an Easter Egg anywhere in the world for a loved one – and Cadbury Secret Santa, a digital platform and physical installations that enabled people to send chocolate secretly to a loved one. On a national scale, the campaign also partnered with Age UK on the ‘Donate your words’ initiative and supported independent chocolate shops.

The accompanying media strategy was to bring people together through emotional stories and experiences, placing heavy emphasis on broadcast channels such as TV, VOD and OOH, supported by digital activity. Despite the annual media budget remaining broadly the same, the strategy generated increasingly positive results – including an uplift in the brand’s share of search.

Over four years, the campaign has seen remarkable success. In addition to re-establishing love for Cadbury Dairy Milk and rebuilding the Cadbury brand, “There’s a glass & a half in everyone” has seen annual sales value increase 22% (compared to a target of 9% growth in 5 years), and by 2021 Cadbury’s annual revenue was £261m higher than in 2017. Cadbury became Britain’s fastest growing grocery brand – worth over £1.4bn per year.

Cadbury Dairy Milk also achieved its highest penetration levels on record, with 75% of British households buying Cadbury Dairy Milk, while the number of people who said they had heard something positive from the brand – or about the brand – tripled from 3% in the two years before the launch, to 10% afterwards.

There was a 36% increase in people’s willingness to recommend Cadbury to their friends, family and colleagues, a 30% increase in perceived product quality/significant increase in agreement with ‘taste I love’ and a 4.2 percentage points increase in market share.

In addition to the grand prix, the Effectiveness paper entitled, “There’s a glass & a half in everyone – How intrinsic purpose can transform a brand’s fortunes” took home the Special Prize for Best Demonstration of Purpose (For-Profit) and a gold award.

Chair of judges Gavin Patterson, who is also Salesforce president and chief strategy officer said: “Congratulations to VCCP for winning the 2022 IPA Effectiveness Awards Grand Prix. This paper is an exceptional example of long-term marketing and the benefits that can bring. Cadbury was a brand in decline, but they invested behind some exceptional consumer insights, turned that into a brilliant brand idea and delivered exceptional results in terms of brand equity and business performance over a number of years.”

Convenor of judges Harjot Singh, who is global chief strategy officer at McCann added: “This paper is a fantastic demonstration of how a purpose anchored in truth about the product can be used effectively in marketing and delivering measurable impact. It is particularly powerful in this case that the purpose was used to generate renewed love for a heritage brand.

“Judges highlighted the innovative multimedia integration over a long-term period. This simple and expertly executed strategy is a powerful example of brand resuscitation through excellent marketing. Congratulations on a remarkable achievement.”

VCCP was also awarded a bronze for its work with Domino’s.

In total, eight gold, seven silver and 13 bronze prizes, along with 10 special prizes, were awarded to companies from the UK, US, Australia, Canada and Chile across not-for-profit and global, regional and single market categories.

Among those who scooped gold were SickKids Foundation by Cossette; Aldi UK Christmas ad “Kevin versus John” by McCann Manchester and UM Manchester; ITV and VegPower “Eat Them to Defeat Them” by Adam & Eve DDB; KFC, Yum! Brands “The Right Way” to rebuild a brand by Mother and Mindshare; McDonald’s “How We Got Customers Lovin’ It And Kept Them Lovin’ It, No Matter What” by Leo Burnett London and OMD UK; McDonald’s Famous Orders – How McDonald’s created a new generation of fans by Wieden + Kennedy New York – Schmackos; Mars Petcare Sales Go Wacko For Schmackos by Adam & Eve DDB.

Special awards went to Tesco “From serving shoppers to serving the nation” by BBH and MediaCom; Mondi Pergraphica “From pushing paper to pulling on heartstrings” by True, while Adam & Eve DDB scooped the Effectiveness Company of the Year; and OMD Group the Effectiveness Network of the Year.

For a full list of winners and to download case studies, visit the IPA website>