Brand:
Cadbury Dairy Milk Silk
Client:
Mondelez India
Agency:
Ogilvy and Mather India
I don’t know if its just me or even you have this smile on your face when you hear the Cadbury Dairy Milk Silk jingle/song.
The overall communication from the very beginning has been centered around the feel or enjoyment of having this melty bar of chocolate.
We see people enjoying the chocolate without being bothered about it being smothered across your face.
Over some time, the communication turned towards focussing more on couples or love.
And this commercial is also centered around the same, you can watch the ad below
Advertising Background:
One of the best parts of the marketing strategy of Silk is their overall aim of linking the product with love.
And that’s true for most of the Cadbury brands, where they relate each of them to a greater thought.
If you take Cadbury Gems, for example, it revolves around this whole 'feel young' brand message.
When it comes to Cadbury Bournvita, the brand focusses on a greater thought of making your kids ready for what beholds them tomorrow.
So all in all, positioning plays a major role in all of these and the communication of course is shaped accordingly.
When it comes to Silk as well, the concept of linking ‘chocolate’ with ‘love’ has not been new, but Cadbury Dairy Milk Silk has ensured to own that space since the very beginning of the product launch.
Their communication around Valentine’s day, the introduction of a heart pop innovation in the chocolate bar, etc. are proof that they wish to stay in this space.
Continuing their linkage to this overarching thought of love, this new commercial was introduced.
Advertising Objective:
While the communication was released 3-4 months back, I think the traction came in more so around IPL time.
In fact, even I came across this ad only during the IPL.
Cadbury Dairy Milk Silk introduced a new proposition of ‘How far will you go for love?’ during Valentine’s day and is further extended through this commercial.
This also comes in at a time, when the brand has realized that some subtle connections like these can strike the right chord with consumers.
As against something which might come across as something very ‘cheesy’.
The objective, therefore, revolves around staying up to date with the evolving meaning or depiction of love, among the youth.
Advertising Execution:
Given the fact that the communication was targeted towards the youth, the brand had to ensure their social media game is spot on.
They delivered just that, through the medium of Instagram.
Before the launch of the commercial, they ran a whole ‘teaser’ sort of campaign on Instagram.
The teaser feel was brilliantly captured, by including an umbrella in the creative and creating a link with the commercial.
Have a look at a few of these below
Post that the film was launched on the digital platform as well as television.
In the execution, we see the girl blushing while her boyfriend tries to protect her from the sun.
The product introduction is also done very subtly, whereby the boyfriend is having a Silk himself, and then offers the same to her, thereby confessing his love.
It’s like the brand is trying to connect a link, where if you give someone a Silk, you are kind of trying to confess your love.
However, the communication comes alive mainly through the theme of the campaign, the jingle/song which instantly connects to the brand.
I may be thinking way too much, but I guess the whole point of communication like this, was also to indirectly talk about social distancing.
Let me explain this, we do not see the couple close to each other, instead, it’s a distance that’s highlighted here, thanks to which the timing of the communication also works brilliantly.
Advertising Learnings:
Here are my top 3 learnings from this campaign
1. Stick to your jingle/song for a stronger connect
This commercial would definitely not have the same effect as it does now, had it not included the famous ‘Kiss me’ jingle.
In the end, it's all about creating a stronger connection with your audience.
With the jingle, the brand ensures that even if your TV is playing in the background, you can relate it to a Cadbury Dairy Milk Silk ad.
2. Evolve your brand proposition, keeping in mind the changing trends
Personally, I feel the initial set of communications released by this brand were too cheesy.
But over some time, the ‘romance’ or ‘love’ has been portrayed in a very subtle way.
This is because even the brand has realized over time to adapt to the youth.
3. A strong brand positioning can help tremendously in the long run
This learning may not be specific to this commercial, but my reason for including this is that the positioning of Silk has helped its success tremendously.
Go back in time, to the time when Cadbury launched Silk.
What if they would’ve just launched this variant, as a smoother chocolate variant of their main brand Dairy Milk?
Would the brand still have the success it enjoys today?
Not really, because believe it or not, our consumption patterns are affected by the introduction of advertising or a new brand positioning.
No wonder, brands invest a whole lot of money in advertising because they know it can bring about a change.
Dairy Milk is also a great example of how positioning helped the brand strengthen its hold in the market.
When Dairy Milk was positioned as an alternative to traditional mithai or sweet, the consumption pattern changed for the better.
Similarly, for Silk, the linkage of ‘love’ has ensured a stronger connect with the audience and has helped the brand succeed in the long run
Also read: Cred- Anil Kapoor Ad Campaign