Under our new campaign platform, Look on the Light Side, Maltesers makes light of everyday mishaps that affect each and every one of us, regardless of who we are or our position in society.

As part of the creative development process we held a number of focus groups in conjunction with local disability charity, Scope, to speak to disabled people about their everyday experiences relating to their disability and to ensure that the stories we told felt authentic. These groups inspired ‘Theo’s Dog’, in which we see two deaf women speaking in sign language. Laughing together over a bag of Maltesers about a recent mishap relating to the protagonist’s disability, she explains to her friend how her boyfriend’s dog ate her hearing aid, and how she managed to retrieve it.

In an industry first, the ad aired without subtitles for its first airing in the Paralympics opening ceremony.

As a result of winning Channel 4’s “Superhumans Wanted” competition, Maltesers were granted £1 million of airtime on the broadcaster’s portfolio of channels and the opportunity to launch all three films in the first ad break of the Paralympics’ opening ceremony in September 2016.

The suite of all three films initially ran across UK TV channels and on-demand services for two months, and are still airing in rotation to date – by April 2017, the ads have reached over 80% of the UK population, collectively aired over 47,810 spots.

Less than 12 hours after launch Maltesers was a trending topic on Facebook, and we saw the greatest spike in Maltesers’ Google search in the history of the brand.

In-market testing proved an increase in sales of +7% for all three TV spots running in rotation, isolated from any other external factors.

Industry and press praised the work for leading the charge on improving the representation of disabled people, and over the next few months Maltesers were invited to debate at multiple industry panel discussions about the role of advertising in society. It was even shown in the House of Commons as part of the annual AA Parliamentary Reception.

Most importantly, by running brand tracking throughout the campaign, we were able to show that after viewing our campaign consumers were 44% more likely to say that they thought Maltesers were changing the way the nation perceives disability.