The Reflection - Cadbury Dairy Milk

Cadburys was founded in Birmingham in 1824 and have become a household name within the UK, being named UK’s happiest brand during 2014 (Jeys, 2014). Cadbury’s have an extensive range of products, ranging from chocolate bars, for example Dairy Milk, to hot chocolate and breakfast bars (Cadbury, 2015). Blue Milk Digital also decided to go with a subtle social media campaign to encourage the consumer to interact and engage with the brand, with each person contributing to the success of the campaign. It was also found that some of the best social media campaigns didn’t use extreme branding and advertising throughout, for example The Two Fairies campaign by Marks and Spencers (Beech, 2014), therefore it just seemed right to adapt a similar model for Cadbury’s Dairy Milk. 

As of December 2015, Cadburys have 12.9 million followers on Facebook, 282,000 followers on Twitter and 51,000 followers on Instagram. The reason Blue Milk Digital decided to launch the #CadburyMemories campaign on social media is because social media is large part of peoples lives, with over 1 billion daily active users on average on Facebook alone in September (Facebook Website, 2015). Using different Social Media platforms also enables Blue Milk Digital to appeal and reach out to different age ranges, for example 71% of Instagram’s community is between the ages of 16 and 34, whereas 46% of Facebook users are over the age of 34 (Statista, 2015). As well as this, it is extremely easy to create and share content on Social Media and have this content become viral, for example the Ice Bucket Challenge.  

Choosing to launch the campaign over the Christmas period enables families to engage further with the brand, as Christmas is generally seen as a time for family and a time for sharing. The campaign Blue Milk have chosen to launch taps into this, asking consumers to post a short video sharing their favourite Christmas memory, and to then share those memories on Social Media with the hashtag #CadburyMemories. This also uses the spirit of Christmas to encourage people from all over the UK to engage with other people over social media, in a way which would not be possible if Cadbury’s were to use an Email or Search Engine campaign, as the consumer would be engaging with Cadbury’s, but not with each other. The competition also pushes the campaign, meaning consumers who aren’t sure about joining in with the campaign have an incentive to do so. 

Blue Milk Digital expects a large response to the campaign, as the campaign itself is extremely easy to participate in, due to the fact that 72% of the UK own a Smart Phone (Styles, 2013) which can be used to capture and share the video onto social media. Even though the campaign doesn’t directly advertise Cadbury’s as a brand, it encourages consumers to search for Cadbury’s products, therefore will increase website traffic, furthermore increasing sales of the Dairy Milk product.  

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