At the heart of Milk Tray’s heritage is the iconic Milk Tray Man - a gentleman who over the course of 40 years and 19 commercials stopped at nothing to deliver a box of Milk Tray to the person he cared for - be that jumping off trains, leaping from ski lifts or wrestling sharks.

Our idea was to revive this iconic character with a nod to his heritage but also with a modern and exciting twist, lifting him out of advertising and placing him at the heart of a national debate about the role of romance and real thoughtfulness in today’s date driven, tinder-powered world of instant gratification.

This idea came to life as a nationwide search for a new hero individual who could take on the role and reinvent it for today with entrants judged not just on their adventurous acts but with proof of their thoughtfulness.

Clad in his iconic black polo neck, one of the original Milk Tray Men (James Coombes) put out a call for a new hero to step forward and take his place, before leaping out of a window and flying away on a helicopter in our enigmatic TV spot.

Transitioning into the real world, Coombes became our PR vehicle stirring up national press and social media into a debate about the need for – and qualities of – a modern Milk Tray Man. The story even hijacked the launch of the new Bond movie with Daniel Craig telling press he’d applied but hadn’t got the gig.

Rising to the challenge, 20,000 people applied at newmilktrayman.com, flooding YouTube and other social channels with videos proving their thoughtfulness. The final applicants were hand selected and interviewed before being whittled down to one caring yet daring individual, firefighter Patrick McBride from Liverpool.

Our idea made a business impact and cultural dent, putting Cadbury Milk Tray at the heart of a consumer-powered debate on gender stereotypes and sexuality in modern marketing, a debate set to rekindle in September when McBride stars in a new Milk Tray Man film. Results to date:

-Double-digit increase in sales (40% in a single month) growing the brand by £3.9m**.

-Over 200 pieces of press coverage (including every national newspaper) in 24hrs, with over 1100 pieces of coverage over the campaign (total 488m impressions) and coverage on broadcast TV over 50 times.

-One in two Brits heard about the campaign, over 20,000 applied to be the new Milk Tray Man, with 55% of applicants aged 25-34 (the age we targeted).

-Over 650hrs of UGC (video applications) uploaded to YouTube with 1755% increase in social conversations (1.6m YouTube impressions, 19m Twitter impressions, 5.7m unique reach on Facebook)

We created a promotion for Cadbury Milk Tray to ignite a national debate on thoughtfulness with a nationwide search for the new Milk Tray Man. TV, PR, social and outdoor supported the search, generating over 20,000 applications, over 650 hours of user generated YouTube content and a 1755% increase in social conversations about the brand. Within the first month of the campaign, our idea had increased Milk Tray sales by 40%*.

We knew reviving the Milk Tray Man would be a compelling act of nostalgia for anybody who recalled his death defying acts of romance in the 80s. But strategically we knew relying on heritage alone wasn’t enough to motivate a younger audience who grew up out of Milk Tray Man’s shadow and represented Milk Tray’s future growth audience.

For the idea to appeal to them it had to not feel like advertising, it had to feel like a conversation the whole nation was having. A PR led approach was essential, because it teased this younger fame driven audience with a taste of what they could expect if they were selected to be the new Milk Tray Man.

The idea also had to be accessible in a way that was inherently social, so we designed the application so that friends could nominate one another, which allowed the conversation to stretch further.

On the eve of its 100th birthday, Cadbury Milk Tray was in no shape to celebrate. Unloved, un-communicated and unsupported, this once iconic brand had been relegated to the grubby bottom shelf of petrol stations, trapped in an aggressive cycle of discounting and years of declining sales.

We had to do something to resuscitate Milk Tray’s relevance and encourage people to reconsider it when shopping for a thoughtful gift for a loved one.

Our challenge was to create an idea that would use the brand’s rich heritage to drive sales amongst an audience who recall Milk Tray in its heyday while also engaging a younger, untapped audience so that Milk Tray could confidently begin its next 100 years revived and connected with its future audience.