Cadbury Dairy Milk is synonymous to chocolate in India. While Cadbury enjoys top box consideration metrics overall, consideration dropped among its growth consumer cluster of 14-19 year olds in Q2 ’21. Since the youth today live their lives online- we realized that to be relevant to them, we need to be relevant to the problems they face online. Indian teens are the most cyberbullied in the world with almost 1 in 4 teenagers reporting that they have faced online hate.

We realized that the apathy surrounding cyberbullying and its silent bystanders, was caused by the screen itself. It creates detachment that makes being hateful inconsequential. This makes people nasty in ways they wouldn’t be in the real world.

Our campaign aims at moving the bystander and defusing online hate by showing the pain of the victim and enabling an easy to share symbol of solidarity – The Purple Heart emoji.

Social media acts as a life force for the youth today. There exists a clear link between their online lives and feelings of self-worth. Alarmingly, today out of every 10 teenagers in India 8 are cyberbullied. The platforms that started out as places for people to connect and express themselves, have become hotspots for hateful behaviour. The anguish caused by widespread cyberbullying is hence experienced by a majority of young netizens today, but there exists an almost impenetrable apathy surrounding it.

Cadbury Dairy Milk believes that heartfelt acts of generosity- when people seem most to need it- create the biggest impact. Hence the Hate Is Unskippable campaign launched in 2021 leveraged technology in an unusual but powerful way. We highlighted the consequences of cyberbullying on the victim through AI-enabled interactive videos to showcase in real-time the impact of the viewer’s inaction, hence spurring action.

Our campaign aimed at getting people to feel for others on the internet. Its algorithm was designed to break the fourth wall and turn viewers into real-time bystanders. Digital films showcasing cyberbullying across issues were created and the heart-breaking consequences they had on the victim were highlighted. Depending on the action/inaction of posting a Purple Heart in solidarity with the bullied- multiple instances were generated. If the viewer posted one, they were shown in real-time how deeply comforted the victim felt. If they ignored the message- they were targeted by new and newer instances which showed the mounting anguish the victim felt due to their inaction.

We organized our campaign communications to drive definitive action from bystanders. We tailed bystanders till they broke their silence and stood against cyberbullying. The relief experienced by the victim reinforced for the viewer how good it feels to be a part of the solution.

Digital films showcasing cyberbullying across issues were created and the heart-breaking consequences they had on the victim were highlighted. Depending on the action/inaction of posting a Purple Heart in solidarity with the bullied- multiple instances were generated. If the viewer posted one, they were shown in real-time how deeply comforted the victim felt. If they ignored the message- they were targeted by new and newer instances which showed the mounting anguish the victim felt due to their inaction.

The campaign took place between 27th July to 30th August, 2021. Our assets were seen across live events, Zoom webinars, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, GDNs, Glance, Saavn, and Spotify.

• Cadbury Dairy Milk grew by 21% vs 3-year category CAGR of 14% in Q3. Growth was across the portfolio and price points.

• Q3 ’21 registered a 3.3pp spike in penetration as the brand achieved its highest penetration since Q1 ’19.

• Consideration scores amongst the 14 – 19 age group went up by 3PP vs the previous quarter.

• The campaign delivered organic PR buzz worth $8.5K within a week.

• The campaign delivered 3 million clicks – 3.5X of the benchmark.

• The campaign delivered +3PP VTR on YouTube against the benchmark.

• The campaign overall delivered great brand metrics: +4.7 on message association (4X of CPG benchmark), +15.8 on ad-recall among 13-17 year olds (2.5X of CPG benchmark) and +1.7 on favourability (2x of benchmark).