The Campaign

New Zealanders are renowned for their upbeat attitudes, but a series of disasters around the country over the past year have been rather sobering. As a company that literally sells little moments of joy, Cadbury wanted to remind their main target, families, that they could still find joy in the everyday without looking like we were capitalizing on the nation's tragedy. We knew that watching it on a screen wouldn’t be enough; we needed people to feel the joy face-to-face. We needed to create a promotion the whole country would be involved in.

The Brief

Given the sombre nature of the tragedies it was imperative that the experiential and PR campaign wasn’t perceived by the media as being glib or, worse still, capitalizing on the loss of life. We chose to launch the campaign at Christmas time, when the act of giving is celebrated. To kick off the campaign we needed a marquee event in Auckland, our biggest city that the media would be forced to cover. To do this we needed an event that defied reason and rationality, so we made it snow in a city that hasn’t seen snow in over 70 years.

Results

In just 12 days we had over 35,000 visitors inside, with more than 126,000 spectators outside and visit to the website went up to 500%. All the top New Zealand media outlets covered the story, gaining over $300,000 worth of earned media with a reach of more than 4 million. The snow globe changed our targets' perception of the brand with close to 50% of them feeling more positive towards Cadbury after visiting it. And we maintained Cadbury Dairy Milk's share while increasing the retail price by 12% as sales lifted between 16-27%.

Execution

A teaser campaign kicked things off, with advertisements in key events media outlets, advising it was about to snow in Auckland. Media received miniature snow globes effectively announcing Auckland's first snow fall since 1939. Community newspapers embraced the concept with pre-event coverage, while TVNZ integrated their coverage of the snow globe with major features on ONE News & Breakfast TV, incentivized by exclusive broadcast coverage. Choirs and charitable partners were engaged to add depth and 'feel good factor' to these stories, particularly apt for yuletide coverage. Ongoing coverage was stimulated by issuing stunning photography of the snow globe with vibrant consumer engagement, ensuring a further raft of stories in regional and community press. Radio partner, More FM had a consistent onsite presence as well as effectively driving listeners to the event. Therefore, these high profile media outlets have significantly increased eyeballs to this campaign in a positive, enlightening and joyful way.

The Situation

Those not involved directly in the tragedies in New Zealand were feeling guilty about experiencing any joy, while those people in the midst of the crisis were still looking for moments of light relief. Cadbury was well placed to offer them an outlet to both create and experience moments of joy again. The Share the Joy project reminded people that there was joy all around them and inspire them to look for it in the everyday. We created a nationwide experiential campaign that used a PR as a main driver for participation in the event.

The Strategy

The media strategy for the snow globe was to build a deeper story around the event, generating newsworthiness for the soft news agenda. Creating exclusive opportunities for targeted, top-tier media and providing each media outlet with a specifically tailored angle achieved this.