Cadbury was in commercial decline: the brand was losing penetration, sales and market share. (2.1).

The cause of this decline was seemingly ingrained. Since a hostile takeover by American corporation Kraft in 2010, a negative narrative had surrounded the brand. News coverage highlighted job cuts, factory closures and even an alleged recipe change. In the eyes of the public: Cadbury didn’t feel like Cadbury anymore (2.2).

Our solution? Re-establish Cadbury by repositioning the brand around its founding purpose: generosity.

Generosity is inherent in Cadbury’s products, all famously made with a glass and a half of milk. Generosity had also been a founding principle of Cadbury since 1832 - whether in the building of Bournville to give workers a better quality of life, or in the Cadbury care packages donated to the frontline during war time (2.3).

Finally, and perhaps most interestingly: generosity felt both counter-category and counter-cultural. The confectionary category was all shiny noise and edifice - while broader culture with its selfie-obsessed celebrities and social media exhibitionism felt noisy and shallow, too.

In this context, we would celebrate ‘quiet everyday’ generosity - a kind word, a helping hand, neighbourly support.

In a world where selfishness and narcissism seemed dominant, Cadbury would re-discover its roots by shining a light on the generous instinct in people and relating it to the generous glass and a half of milk in every bar.

This led to a new campaign line: “There’s a glass and a half in everyone” (2.5).

The new campaign launched in January 2018.

The first execution was “Mum’s Birthday”, featuring a young girl tentatively buying a birthday bar of Dairy Milk for her mum, using her precious toy buttons and a unicorn (2.6).

This was followed by “Fence” - where young boys surprise their elderly neighbour with a Dairy Milk bar after he returns their errant toys - and “Bus”, where a boy proves surprisingly generous by offering his bar to an upset teenage girl (2.8).

This was accompanied by two seasonal activations (2.9):

Cadbury Worldwide Hide - a digital platform where people could virtually hide an Easter Egg anywhere in the world for a loved one

Cadbury Secret Santa - an activation that enabled people to send chocolate secretly to a loved one

In addition, we partnered with Age UK to launch Donate Your Words - a two-year long initiative asking people to donate their time – and conversation – to the 1.4m older people in the U.K experiencing loneliness .

In its entirety, this comms has been recognised as amongst the most emotionally engaging creative Kantar have ever reviewed (3.0). Brand strength has grown significantly and, in turn, commercial results have dramatically improve:

-Consideration is now 55%, +5ppt (versus target +3ppt)

-Cadbury’s ‘high quality’ score is now 37%, +8ppt (versus target +5ppt)

-Penetration of Cadbury Dairy Milk is now 73.3%, +11% (versus target +9%)

-Market share is now 35.3, +10% (versus target +5%)

-Value sales are a record £1.44bn, +22% (smashing target of +9%).