It cost £6 million to build, but was worth the expense. In 1990 Cadbury World opened, attracting 350,000 visitors in its first year – 100,000 more than expected.
Cadbury also began sponsoring Coronation Street in 1996, with a total package which came to £10 million, meaning Cadbury ‘bumpers’ at the beginning, middle and end of every episode of the popular soap. It meant that a captive audience of 18 million saw Coronation Street recreated in chocolate with a purple Cadbury’s sky and the familiar ‘glass and a half’ of milk icon.
It was a more effective way of reaching people than trying to use the £10 million budget across seventeen of the most important Cadbury brands, and the strategy was so successful that it lasted nearly eleven years.
Recent years have also seen new iconic TV ads. ‘Gorilla’, showing the eponymous primate enthusiastically playing the drums on the Phil Collins record ‘In the Air Tonight’, proved hugely popular and cleaned up at advertising awards ceremonies, winning many prizes including the Grand Prix Lion at Cannes in 2008.
Meanwhile Cadbury Creme Egg has moved on from ‘how to you eat yours’ to become moving, living creatures whose mission in life is to splat their goo using whatever they can find in their environment. New Twisted Creme Egg bar is the egg’s evil twin – a mischievous little monster who creates chaos by lobbing goo around.
With audiences now harder to reach due to dozens of TV channels and the rise of computer games, mobile phones and the internet, digital advertising has also become of increasing importance. Digital channels like the internet have one crucial advantage; you can interact – for instance post comments, vote, enter competitions, make your own films.
The possibilities are endless, and it’s a great way of reaching out to people and allowing everyone to be a part of Cadbury – a modern version of the cookery demonstrations and promotions of the 1930s.
All in all Cadbury advertising in the 21st century is leading the way, just as it has done throughout the company’s history.