At the heart of Cadbury Milk Tray’s heritage is the iconic Milk Tray Man, a gentleman who would stop at nothing to deliver a box of Cadbury Milk Tray to the woman he cared for. Our idea was to revive this character for modern audiences, sparking conversation over what it means to be a hero in the modern world.

We conducted a nationwide search for the perfect person to take on the mantle, kicking off our appeal for a new type of hero (one who is adventurous yet thoughtful) by finding the original Milk Tray Man and putting him on TV – providing a natural news hook.

To ensure it launched with a bang and was sustained at key selling periods (Christmas and Valentine’s Day) we planned the publicity for the campaign as a real-time newsroom. We responded to news as it happened and encouraged social conversation with influencer outreach.

Launch: built anticipation with one-to-one media meets to preview ATL, treating launch as a publicity junket for the advert’s star, James Coombes

Influencer Engagement: outreached to media and celebrity influencers, delivering iconic black polo necks and Cadbury Milk Tray to drive excitement and talkability

News Hijacking: jumped on news agenda to insert Milk Tray Man into conversation, e.g. Daniel Craig discussing his potential for the role around James Bond Spectre launch

Content Amplification: amplified celebrity-led video showcasing celebrity candidates’ on a boot camp, giving media new, interesting content to continue the story

Reveal: prepared new Milk Tray Man to speak to the right media at the right time via toolkit of assets and a tailored approach to media targeting

Media visits: We took new Milk Tray man on tour of top media houses the day after the big reveal to demonstrate the MTM qualities in real-life in a timely way

• Total 1135 articles, total impressions of over 500m

• Winner announcement secured 200 pieces of coverage in 24 hours and a further 500 since. Over 100 radio stations covered the story, plus three breakfast and two evening TV news programmes (including a 12min feature on BBC News) and was featured in every national newspaper – more than once. It trended organically on Twitter twice

• We appeared on TV more than 50 times

• Over 20,000 people applied, 55% aged 25 to 34 – the core demographic we were hoping to engage with the brand

• We increased conversation for the brand on social – delivering a 1755% increase

• The campaign achieved double digit growth, sales increased in one month by 40%* - and delivered an additional £3.9 million** in sales over the four-month campaign.

• It is Cadbury’s most successful PR campaign of all time