India is a beautiful amalgamation of over 2000 ethnic groups. We first celebrated this unity in diversity when we fought for our freedom 73 years ago and have continued since. So, when India of today is getting more and more pulled apart on its core essence on the basis race, language or political views, it worried us.

Cadbury Dairy Milk(CDM) has become integral to this beautiful union, it today stands as a marker of happiness and is considered a Meetha (homemade sweet) in every occasion. We wondered how CDM could become the unifying ‘Mithaas’ (sweetness) with all the bitterness around?

CDM is globally known for its firm belief that there is a little bit of generosity and kindness in everyone, just waiting to be nudged. Taking this belief forward our mission was to bring out this ‘mithaas’, this generous instinct and promote a positive message of unity for every Indian.

FROM STORY-TELLING TO STORY-DOING

To showcase CDM’s belief about brining Joy through Unity, a heart-warming advertising campaign wouldn’t be enough, we needed to create something more tangible.

We brought back the connectedness by sharing sweetness through something one could hold & taste – a Unity Bar!

A bar crafted using milk, blended, dark and white chocolate, all in one block – individually distinct and collectively sweet; A bar that reminded Indians that though they’re different in, ‘looks, creed, traditions, and languages spoken’, they're united in spirit.

Celebrating their diversity on the 73rd Independence Day, would be a perfect way to bring them together as a nation.

We chose to be present on the first media that consumers come in touch in the morning - newspapers. Rather than relying on vanilla communication about unity, we decided to intercept them with executions that created ‘Shock and Awe’; triggering conversations.

On 15th August 2019, Indians woke up to their newspapers announcing the launch of the Unity Bar.

We chose full-front-page ads in leading dailies to create a unique telegraphic experience of diversity by swapping the headline ‘Sweet things happen when we unite’, to a language unfamiliar in that region. This induced readers to identify them as errors, only to have an ‘aaahhh’ moment of surprise as they read further.

Ex: English newspaper subscribers saw the headline in Hindi, Marathi (West-Indian regional language) newspaper subscribers saw the headline in Telugu (South-Indian regional language).

The critical challenge was convincing these eminent publications to carry non-native language creatives, because they feared the possibility of public ridicule and criticism. However, we overcame this and executed a novel media approach. Through nine publications, and five languages we reached consumers across the length and breadth of India, inspiring a positive spirit of brotherhood and harmony.

Engagement and Conversations:

- The campaign was witnessed by 635Mn audiences in India and 903Mn Indians globally.

- The campaign propelled through national and regional publications, garnering a reach of 22 million.

- The campaign set over 4000 mentions globally with 1300 from India and 6400 conversations on the subject globally with 4400 from India.

- The Unity Bar generated conversations on social media and earned PR worth USD 30K.

Increase in Brand Equity Scores:

- Unity Bar contributed to additional relevance (74% to 76%) and distinctiveness (71% to 73%) to the mother brand CDM.

- Brand imagery scores on ‘Evokes Happiness’ went up by 108bps, and ‘Brand for Everyone’ went up by 145bps.

Sale of Unity Bars:

- The Unity Bar sold through online stores in under 3hours at a rate of one bar every 5sec