“Bring the best of your authentic self to every opportunity.”-John Jantsch, Author of Duct Tape Marketing
Indians’ love for Cricket knows no boundaries and the World Cup is celebrated nationally. Dedicated Cricket fans can’t afford to miss anything that happens on and off the field. Therefore, they are constantly hooked on different social media platforms. Although a lot of companies wish to exploit Cricket to promote their products, not many leave an indelible mark. Cadbury 5 Star came up with an innovative marketing tactic to promote their brand by leveraging the online platform and the Cricket World Cup simultaneously.
Cadbury and Cadbury 5 Star
John Cadbury, who sold tea, coffee and drinking chocolate, established the company in 1824 in Birmingham, England. Today, it is a leading global confectionery company that manufactures chocolate, gum and candy. It is present in more than fifty countries. One of its products, 5 Star chocolate came into the market in 1969 and the consumers have been drooling ever since because of the soft caramel nougat inside! Taste has always been its USP and a classic gold color is its key. Cadbury 5 Star has been reinvented over the years and new variations have also been added to the brand, for instance 5 Star Crunchy and 5 Star Fruit and Nut. Currently, it has a market share of 14 per cent and is second in sales to Cadbury Dairy Milk.
Cadbury 5 Star’s Campaign
The brand has always been persuasive with its campaigns. ‘Deliciously rich, you’d hate to share it’ in the 70’s, ‘lingering taste of togetherness and soft and chewy 5 Star’ in the late 80’s are testimonies, to state a few. At present, the duo- Ramesh and Suresh are taking the legacy forward with the tagline ‘jo khaye, kho jaye’, meaning ‘lost in the taste of 5 Star’. OgilvyOne is the agency that brought the pair up, close and personal with their fans. Asked by their father (pitaji) to find a job, they handled the ticket and food counters at PVR cinemas in Mumbai and Gurgaon and regaled the fans with typical ‘lost’ Ramesh-Suresh moments. People clicked pictures with them and posted them online using the hashtag #jokhayekhojaye. After the campaign’s offline success, the agency took the campaign online and to the next level. SoundCloud is an online audio distribution platform that enables its users to upload, record, promote, and share their original sounds. Ramesh and Suresh gave commentary on the India-South Africa World Cup match via a SoundCloud account and leveraged their Twitter fan base of 13,800.
Match shuru ho gayi hai. In case you forgot here's the pitch report. https://t.co/raFhmBECkj#JoKhaayeKhoJaaye
— Cadbury 5 Star (@Cadbury5Star) February 22, 2015
How many runs do you think Virat Dhawan will score together? Listen and tell us. #JoKhaayeKhoJaaye #IndvsSA #SAvsInd https://t.co/FtvGPR7ZyT
— Cadbury 5 Star (@Cadbury5Star) February 22, 2015
#Contest Describe Dhawan's batting and tell us using #JoKhaayeKhoJaaye The funniest 3 answers win hampers #IndvsSA http://t.co/v7MXZBoyqt
— Cadbury 5 Star (@Cadbury5Star) February 22, 2015
Campaign Strategy
The Senior Creative Director of OgilvyOne, George Kovoor believed that the India-South Africa match was a crucial one and hence, a great opportunity to connect with the masses. He thought it was the right time to revamp Cadbury 5 Star’s campaign. He added that this was the first time a brand used SoundCloud for live cricket commentary. Ramesh and Suresh did not fall short of entertainment. They engaged their fans through shayaris, anthems and contests with 5 Star chocolates as the prize. Furthermore, they read out personalized messages by fans, read an audio letter for the South-African team, reacted on the scores and got ‘lost’ during the process. Their real-time commentary on SoundCloud was shared on different social media platforms, especially Twitter. Fans responded in large numbers using the hashtag #jokhayekhojaye.
Result of the Campaign
During the World Cup, Twitter was no less than a virtual stadium. Hence, Cadbury 5 Star’s online campaign paid off. The amusing and the first of its kind live commentary was well received by the fans. The result was overwhelming for the brand. There were 26,926 plays for the commentary recordings on SoundCloud, about 3,80,221 Twitter impressions, 1200 retweets, 698 replies, 667 favorites and 1.3 million people were reached out on Facebook, with an engagement rate of 6 per cent. Twitter created a Twitter Brand Index by using an aggregate of retweets, favorites and replies to analyze the top five brands from more than 50 brands, who advertised during the World Cup. Among the top five advertisers who used Twitter as a platform during the second week of the World Cup, Cadbury 5 Star was at the fifth slot.
Learning from Case Study
When a brand steps up its marketing tactics, it tends to make a better impact on its customers. Furthermore, an innovative and creative strategy that targets a large audience certainly yields results. A noteworthy point from this case study is that identifying potential consumers and the right opportunity to target them play a key role in a brand’s success. While as many social media platforms should be explored as possible, it is important to maintain the quality of the online content used for promoting the brand. Significant emphasis should be laid on engaging the customers in a fun and exciting way that not only persuades them to buy the product but also makes them spread the word.
Image Credits: Google Images
Tweets: Twitter