Cadbury Dairy Milk: Happily Married - Chocolate and Mishti (traditional sweet) Team Pinnacle

Warc Prize for Asian Strategy

Shortlisted, 2013

Cadbury Dairy Milk: Happily Married - Chocolate and Mishti (traditional sweet)

Team Pinnacle

Campaign details

Brand owner: Mondelez International

Agency: Pinnacle (A Madison Media unit)

Brand: Cadbury Dairy Milk

Country: India

Channels used: Events and experiential, Games and competitions, Internet - display, Internet - general, Magazines -

consumer, Newspapers, Other and ambient media, Outdoor, out-of-home, Point-of-purchase, in-store media, Print - general,

unspecified, Product placement, Public relations, Radio, Sales promotion, Social media, Television, Word of mouth and viral

Media budget: 1 - 3 million

Executive summary

India is a sweet-loving nation with an industry the size of $10 billion. The chocolate market, in contrast, is only a minor 10% of

it. One of the larger traditional sweet consuming markets is West Bengal. Cadbury Dairy Milk (CDM) chocolate wanted to gain

market share in traditional-sweets-loving West Bengal.

Traditionalists and gatekeepers of Bengali cultural heritage were identified as chefs/celebrities and neighbourhood sweetshop

owners and a media strategy was devised to target these people to be evangelists of Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolate.

Challenges were organized among the traditional sweetshops to create new kinds of traditional sweet using CDM. Local

celebrities were invited to be the face of participating sweetshops. The Bengali populace submitted their own recipes and a

grand award ceremony was organized attended by the celebrated folk of the local media and entertainment industry.

This resulted in 80 new varieties of chocolate-mishti (sweet). Two million pieces of CDM-mishti sold during the campaign

period. Extensive PR coverage of around 5,200 cc valued at Rs30 million in partnership with the state's leading newspapers

was attained. The consumer metric 'CDM as a preferred sweet' increased by 32%. The mind measure 'have CDM instead of

traditional sweet' increased by 45%.

Market background and business objectives

Title: Cadbury Dairy Milk: Happily Married - Chocolate and Mishti (traditional sweet)Author(s): Team PinnacleSource: Warc Prize for Asian StrategyIssue: Shortlisted, 2013

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West Bengal (one of the key chocolate markets in India)'s association with traditional sweets/mishti dates back many

centuries. Very few know that the traditional Bengali sweet 'roshogolla' has been eaten and relished since the medieval ages

in the great Hindu temple town of Puri. When Cadbury Dairy Milk set its sights on entering the dessert arena of the fiercely

traditional sweet-loyalist Bengali's palate, it seemed a tall task indeed.

The Bengali family patronizes the neighbourhood sweetshop for dessert options. In fact, there are more than 100,000

traditional sweetshops across Kolkata (capital of state of Bengal). Loyalty to the local neighbourhood traditional sweet shop

runs high and thus these shops became the de facto entry point for Cadbury Dairy Milk to reach out to the traditional-

sweet/mishti consumers in the Bengali heartland.

The business objective was to gain entry for Cadbury Dairy Milk in a traditional-sweet-loving household of Bengal and, in the

process, grow the chocolate market.

Insight and strategic thinking

The Target Audience

The masses of the mishti-loving Bengali public in the city of Kolkata (the 'followers') were the main target for obvious reasons

it was their hearts that Cadbury Dairy Milk wished to capture. And who better to target their palates with than certain

influencers (the 'opinion leaders') and their neighbourhood sweetshop owners (the 'makers'), all of whom in turn formed our

secondary target audience?

Situation Analysis

The challenge of the right connect

Normally when one encounters an obstacle, one can step over it or sidestep it rare indeed is the occasion when one uses

that very barrier as an aid itself. Similarly when Cadbury Dairy Milk (CDM) entered the traditional sweets market of Bengal,

some of the biggest brand barriers were the traditional sweet makers/ traditional sweetshop owners themselves.

CDM however turned the barriers around and used them in a different manner and role, thus defying conventions and age-old

practices.

The challenge of the right expression

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The need of the hour was to get the target audience actively involved in sampling the new sweet offerings from Cadbury Dairy

Milk.

The right expression for the campaign came from the cultural affiliations of that community. For years, the collective Bengali

conscience had wielded the power of the vote to change everything from public policies to power-mongering governments.

As a natural progression, the 'vote-loving' sentiment of the Bengalis was tapped in the form of a voting-based campaign for

their favourite CDM mishti.

The Integrated Media Solution

The media insight

To win a unique space in the minds of the Bengali consumer, CDM followed the pyramid approach (as shown below) to

change consumer behavior.

When barriers themselves become brand messengers, all walls of rejection break down.

The media strategy

The brand task was to occupy a space in the mind of the traditional sweet-loving consumer of Bengal. The media strategy was

to choose media windows which would break down the barriers (ie the makers as shown in the diagram above) and turn those

very barriers into our communication media as mentioned above. In order to choose these media windows, all the agents that

had a local connect to consumers' hearts were considered.

In the traditional sweet-bound city of Kolkata, CDM still remains a foreign concept in comparison with traditional sweets. For

CDM to take the cultural route as well as connect to our consumers' hearts, it had to blend in with the accepted varieties of

mishtis with support from other culturally relevant factors all of which proved to be the media windows.

The 4A media strategy was created:

l Acknowldege the various barriers (eg makers).

l Amplify those very barriers by enlisting their help through a localized activity.

l Attract the consumers through follow-up activities.

l Award the winners.

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Implementation, including creative and media development

Phase 1: Acknowledging Barriers

Converting barriers into advocates through traditional-sweet-shops activity

Nine of the best traditional sweetshop chains (each with more than 30 outlets across the city) of Kolkata were roped in and

challenged to create new kinds of sweets/mishtis using CDM. As many as 100,000 traditional sweet shops across the city

became our consumer engagement points. There were as many as 80 varieties of sweets/mishtis created out of CDM during

this competition

All in all, this entire CDM mishti activity had the flavour of a general election and. to promote this, the entire gamut of both

mainstream ATL and BTL media was used. So not only were mainstream media like television, print, radio, outdoors, digital

and buses used but also unique regional media like trams and other local media like locality posters.

Phase 2: Attracting Opinion Leaders and Individuals

Capitalizing on regional passions celebrities and politics

It is known that Bengalis are passionate about both politics and local celebrities: a political campaign format was used. Local

celebrities from the film and entertainment industry of the region were convinced to join the cause and each of them became

the face of a particular sweet shop. They campaigned vigorously for 'their shops' over two weeks, encouraging people to go

and visit them and sample the CDM delicacies.

On a chosen day, the sweet/mishti shops became polling booths as customers turned up in large numbers to vote for their

favourite Cadbury Diary Milk sweet/mishti through voting machines/tabs kept at the shops or by dialling a unique zip dial

number or even by sending SMSes.

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Judging by the doyens

'The quality of the sweets is really good. It is good to see these old sweet shops taking part in such a challenging

contest.' (Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay)

'I don't remember such a competition being held in the city before. This was really exciting and it was good to see its

popularity.' (Sandip Ray, film-maker)

'The idea, the campaign and the enthusiasm around it were great.' (Rakhi Purnima Dasgupta, food columnist)

Involving consumers at a personal level

The next phase of creating CDM sweet/mishti focused on individual consumers. The 'recipe challenge' along with a special

editorial integration encouraged individuals to participate in the CDM sweet camps and workshops. Mishti-making camps and

workshops were held over two days where panels of celebrity chefs actually taught the participants the recipes to make their

own CDM-inspired mishti. The participants were then asked to send in their personal CDM mishti recipes as part of a contest.

The winners would later be congratulated at a public ceremony.

For the recipe challenge, a mix of print, digital and on-ground activations was used. More than 500 people registered for the

mishti camps.

A sweet beginning to the Bengali New Year

To top it all, Kolkata witnessed a CDM mishti fair to welcome the Bengali New Year CDM-style. The event, held over two

days, showcased the winners of both the CDM shop and individual recipe challenge. In all, a massive 50,000 people had a

sweet start to their New Year, CDM-style.

Phase 3: Awarding the Consumers

The glittering awards ceremony

Both the winners of the CDM mishti contest and the personal CDM mishti recipe contest were awarded at a glittering awards

ceremony attended by the bigwigs of the local media and entertainment industries. The awards ceremony had several

stunning performances by Usha Uthup and other famous local stars like Parambrata Chatterjee and June Malia. More than

60,000 people were part of this glamorous night.

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Phase 4: Amplify Using Multimedia and PR

Public relations

We achieved extensive PR coverage of around 5,200 cc valued at Rs30 million in partnership with the state's leading

mouthpieces The Telegraph and Ananda Bazaar Patrika (ABP).

Performance against objectives

Overall, the campaign successfully created a unique space in the minds of the mishti-loving consumers of city of Kolkata in

Bengal as seen from the following:

l Kolkata voted for its favourite CDM mishtis, thus making the campaign receive over a million votes.

l 80 new varieties of chocolate mishti were added to the sweet capital of India's menu (source: Cadbury company figures).

l A record-breaking two million pieces of CDM-mishti sold during the campaign period.

l Extensive PR coverage of around 5,200 cc valued at Rs30 million in partnership with the state's leading mouthpieces,

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The Telegraph and Ananda Bazaar Patrika (ABP).

l CDM touched an unprecedented 92% spontaneous awareness.

l The consumer metric 'CDM as a preferred sweet' increased by 32%.

l The mind measure 'have CDM instead of mishti' increased by 45%.

Lessons learned

l CDM became an ingredient in the making of traditional sweet of Bengal in India.

l To reach the right target audience the product can be customized to integrate into culture.

l True innovation comes by adapting to the environment and not by making paradigm changes.

l Simple solutions can result in monumental gains.

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