Cadbury launches first Australian social-only campaign to push two new lines for Olympics
For the first time Cadbury will ignore traditional media channels and focus entirely on social to drive sales of its two new limited edition flavours – Lamington and Apple Crumble – released in support of the Australian Olympic team.
Sally Pearson and Anna Meares are first-time Cadbury ambassadors
The brand’s head of strategic partnerships and events said Cadbury is balancing the sales of the chocolates through Woolworths and Coles, with each retailer receiving exclusive access to one of the two lines.
Coles will sell the limited edition Cadbury Apple Crumble block while Woolworths will sell the Cadbury Lamington block.
Lauren Fildes, head of strategic partnerships and events at Mondelez ANZ, told Mumbrella that experience gained at the London Olympics had driven the brand to focus the entire promotion through social and point of sale, usurping for the first time TV and other mainstream media support for the promotion.
“Last games we didn’t have a social media campaign, we didn’t have ambassadors, so we have really given sponsorship – and this has been an evolution over the past two years – it’s really (become) a key pillar in our whole marketing mix,” Fildes said.
She said the brand had learned a lot about social engagement through its sponsorship of The Voice on Nine in 2015 that it was now building upon.
“We use our social and digital channels very strongly so you won’t see an ad on TV for sponsorship of the Australian Olympic team because we know that London was such a digital games (and) we wanted to be a part of that. We know that our consumers are consuming content in different ways and we want to be a part of that.
Lamington and Apple Crumble: Cadbury’s Rio Olympics edition chocolates
She said the approach represented an important shift for the brand as it used the Olympics to drive its message of ‘Joy’.
I think these shorter term social campaigns provide us with a lot of learnings about how to do things differently. We are taking lots of learnings from other campaigns that we do – some work and some don’t – but that is where you get your learnings from.
She said Cadbury would always use TV as a part of its mix but there were also opportunities to test new ways to engage.
“Sponsorship is another way that we can branch out and trial different (approaches) that we might not have communicated before,” she said.
“I think these shorter term social campaigns provide us with a lot of learnings about how to do things differently, how we want to be perceived, and definitely provide ways that we can develop our brand and excite consumers in different ways.
Cadbury will also tap into the social communications channels of ambassadors such as cyclist Anna Meares and hurdler Sally Pearson to drive the promotion – the first time Cadbury has used individual ambassadors as part of its Olympics strategy.
When Meares was announced as a Cadbury ambassador last year, she stressed she would not be “posting pics of myself eating blocks of chocolate”.
The new lines were developed using both a Rio games theme and the green and gold colours of Australia which Cadbury will leverage through a promotion asking people to upload videos – with winners going into a draw to travel to Rio to support Australia.
Entrants are being encouraged to make videos to convince Brazilians to unite under the colours of green and gold to support Australia.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9jB-LYtaXI
She said the decision to offer Coles and Woolworths exclusive access to different flavours was about striking balance with Australia’s two largest supermarkets.
“As a business we obviously treat all of our customers in a fair manner and the Apple Crumble and Lamington, Coles has Apple Crumble and Woolworths has Lamington and we will always to the best of our ability produce two flavours that we feel is as appealing to all consumers.”
