Purple is associated with royalty, Roman emperors and….one very British chocolate.
Any advertising team would be over the moon at winning the Cadbury account, particularly for its 200th anniversary year, so omnipresent is the brand in the British psyche. At VCCP they’ve been working to mark the occasion for around a year and a half.
It won’t come as a surprise that agency insiders toyed with many scripts and ideas before they hit upon the deceptively simple concept which has wowed the public and advertising experts alike.
“We came at the brief from so many different angles. Hundreds and hundreds of scripts were written but there was one idea that we kept coming back to; generosity,” explains VCCP creative director Angus Vine – one of the select few creatives who was trusted with the project.
“So much has changed over the 200 years but those little moments of generosity have always been there and that felt like a lovely thing to zero in on.”
A very brief history of Cadbury
In the world of business ethics, Cadbury is well-known for its generosity.
Founded in 1824, shortly before the Victorian era, generosity ran through the fabric of the business at a time of huge exploitation and when workhouses were seen as the norm. Following a Quaker-influenced school of thinking, it created Bournville, a village designed to improve the living conditions of its employees.
Despite changing times (and the acquisition of the brand by US multinational Kraft Foods, now Mondelez International, in 2010 to quite some outcry, from MPs and the public alike), it’s the idea of giving to loved ones or community that Vine says VCCP wanted to capture on behalf of Cadbury.
“We tried again and again to bring that to life and wrote loads of scripts around that area but Mum’s Birthday just felt like the best way to bring that to life,” Vine says.
The original Mum’s Birthday campaign hit the screens in 2018, telling the story of a girl buying her mother a Cadbury bar for her birthday. So impactful was the original advert, that to mark 200 years of Cadbury, the VCCP team adapted the script so that it told the brand’s story from 1824 to the present day.
“The script itself had that sort of universal appeal but being set in a corner shop allowed us to sort of show the progression of time in a really crafted way,” Vine explains.
“We wanted to show the passing of time but we didn’t want it to override the emotional story that we had at the heart of this lovely moment of generosity with the girl and the shopkeeper.”
To add to the simplicity, the advert does not feature any extravagant music or sound effects.
Please sir, I want some more (chocolate)
But the touching concept was not without its challenges. Since the original story took place five years ago, the girl has of course grown into a (much taller) teenager.
“We wanted to be as faithful to the original scripts as possible so we worked with the same director, Academy’s Frederic Planchon, but one tricky thing was obviously the hero girl was now five years older and looks very different,” says Vine.
“We needed to use face-mapping and 3D modelling in our new advert, and it was definitely the biggest challenge that we had in the entire shoot because everything from the lighting to the angles needed to be matched perfectly just to allow that to happen – and there was a lot of work that went into that from behind the scenes from the post production company,” he adds.
For Vine, it’s the fact that Mum’s birthday was set in a corner shop that made it so apt for the anniversary.
“We wanted it to be subtle and crafted and we didn’t want it to jar or jog your attention too much within the scene changes,” Vine continues.
“We crafted it to make it look almost incidental, so everything moved in a lovely seamless way. Specific objects were placed – so we had an early radio, that turned in to a later radio and then became a TV – but the rest of the shop sort of remained the same.”
Carrying this out successfully took a lot of research.
“It’s so satisfying that it doesn’t overpower the story but a huge amount of crafting went into making sure the ad was authentic and matches the time periods. It’s great when you see the opening frame and that it spans 200 years, and how it transitions through that.”
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Why identity speaks louder than gimmicks
As if a stellar TV number wasn’t enough, when VCCP’s accompanying print advert launched it was plain why many commentators nodded to themselves and thought, neatly done.
The advert was simply set, featuring a purple background with a ‘200’ hidden in the Cadbury logo.
But Vine admits he can’t get away without crediting his forefathers in branding expertise – “It’s the history behind the brand, the colour, that all probably helps us be able to do an item like that, with the absolute confidence people will see it and know it’s Cadbury.”
He adds: “Stripping things back to their bare minimum can make them more rewarding with a standout creative”.
Two centuries, a Cadbury each
To tap even further into our sentimentality, VCCP took a trip to Cadbury World to see archives of vintage chocolate bars and advertisements and is releasing a set of limited edition retro style bars.
It has also launched a series of OOH images featuring retro images sent in by the public of touching family moments with their favourite chocolate bars, which will be further updated as they come through with a competition and upcoming events yet to come surrounding the 200 year anniversary.
“It was amazing to see people discovering these old photos where they had Cadbury products in them, and they tended to be birthdays and Christmases – these big and small moments,” Vine continues.
Whilst some have criticised the brand for such a hefty focus on an expensive launch, think beyond and it’s plain to see it’s the kind of work that cements an identity so strong its rewards are priceless – even if it doesn’t rake in immediately measurable sums.
As Vine puts it: “The idea of yours for 200 years was forcing a light back onto the public. Everyone’s got a sense of ownership with Cadbury, and we all hold it quite dear to our hearts in the country”.
Feature image credit: Girl and Bear
