Brand of the Year shortlist profiled: Cadbury

Like many manufacturers of fizzy drinks and confectionery, Cadbury has been under the microscope as the UK’s biggest chocolate brand ever since the government introduced its ‘sugar tax’ in 2018. That followed on from a challenge by Public Health England the year before for the food industry to reduce sugar levels by one fifth by 2020.

Cadbury’s response was to go further than the government had requested and announce a new variant of its best-selling Dairy Milk chocolate bar that contains 30% less sugar than the original.

It has only just launched, yet one measure of its success already comes in the form of YouGov data showing that ad awareness has been steadily rising since the spring among consumers who agree with the statement: ‘I could be healthier’. The brand’s messaging around tackling consumers’ growing health concerns is currently resonating, then, with people who are looking to improve their health.

This was just one data point that was factored into the decision of the Marketing Week Masters awards judges to shortlist Cadbury for Brand of the Year. To assist their deliberations, YouGov supplied detailed research and analysis on 10 longlisted brands.

Marketing Week Masters awards shortlist: Special Masters

Its data also shows Cadbury’s continuing investment in TV advertising is proving a wise strategic choice for the brand, which over the past year has consistently recorded higher purchase intent scores among TV viewers than in the wider population.

Among its recent TV activity has been a campaign this year involving consumers in inventing and choosing the next new Cadbury product to hit shelves. It has also been pushing its new ‘Darkmilk’ chocolate, with a higher cocoa content than standard milk chocolate, targeted at consumers with more ‘grown up’ tastes.

Cadbury’s recent investment in both new and core product lines, fuelling an agile approach to innovations, contributed to the brand’s customer satisfaction scores rising by more than two percentage points in the past year – a statistically significant increase, according to YouGov.

Going back further, in 2018 the business released its first TV campaign for Cadbury’s Roses in 20 years, celebrating that brand’s 80th anniversary. That came after a repositioning of Cadbury overall at the start of last year, which saw it adopt the strapline ‘There’s a glass and a half in everyone’.

According to Dirk Van de Put, CEO of Cadbury’s owner Mondelēz, the repositioning “connected really well” with consumers, leading to a six-point increase in brand consideration and a mid-single digit rise in organic net sales in 2018.

It has been a full and very busy few months for Cadbury’s marketers, rewarded with its nomination for Brand of the Year.

The winners of Marketing Week’s Masters will be unveiled during a ceremony held at The Brewery in London on 2 October. For more information on the event and table bookings head to marketingweekmasters.com.